The Last Exile — Charles Durham

A towering saga about one man's journey into the wild Canadian frontier of the eighteenth century -- and into the passions that war within us all

A student in Paris, Gabriel Dublanche watched in horror while members of the forbidden Huguenot church were tortured and killed by the authorities. Profoundly affected, he fled home to Normandy, where disease and death threatened to destroy the region. But the pestilence paled beside the baser passion that battled for Gabriel's own soul: revenge against the man who murdered his best friend.

With his new wife, Celeste, Gabriel set sail for Canada, a distant dark land of vast forest and wild, primitive people and of booming new cities. Gabriel could not have known that the bitter northern wind would drive Celeste further into her tormented mind . . . and that a cruel trick of fate would bring him face to face with an evil whose curse, it seemed, he could not escape. In a moment of blind fury, he would destroy his family's only hope for happiness.

Forced to flee yet again, Gabriel's refuge became the harsh wilderness of the Chippewa Indians. There, amidst the events foretold by the wise and beautiful Indian girl Philepenca, Gabriel would confront the questions that haunt men throughout the ages: Why in a beautiful world was there so much suffering? Why, Gabriel asked himself, am I driven to hatred, when all really I want is love?

This powerful epic -- rich in character, faithful to history, crowded with events -- soars to its deeply satisfying conclusion as Gabriel finally lays to rest the demons of his own heart.