Shadows on the Rock

Willa Cather sets this book in Quebec during the 1600s, an island of French civilisation on a bare grey rock in the middle of a wilderness of forests. For many settlers the place feels like banishment, cut off so completely that a full winter can pass with no outside contact.

The novel closely follows settlers who had to adjust to a new continent while keeping hold of the customs and objects of the land they had left. Its setting in 1697 gives the story its sense of isolation.

This edition is a reissue published by Vintage, ISBN-13 9780679764045.