BRIDE OF NEW FRANCE

In 1669, Laure is living in a poorhouse and dreaming of an easier life. Her dream ends when she is unwillingly chosen as a FILLE DU ROI (daughter of the king) as part of Louis XIV's plan to send girls to New France to marry settlers and populate his colony. Laure's journey from Paris to an isolated cabin in the woods where she is married to a piggish husband mirrors that of many such girls. Listeners immediately appreciate Emma Bering's excellent French accent and pronunciation of names and places. Her reading is careful and expressive but often too slow, with pauses that seem to stretch. Although the fate of LES FILLES DU ROI was impeccably researched, Desrochers’s novel lacks spark, and Bering's narration is unable to compensate. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2012]