Isola
Marguerite de La Rocque de Roberval, a young girl in 1530s France, has inherited the vast wealth of her father – a château, villages, vineyards, fields. She and her fortune are under the guardianship of her father’s cousin, Jean-François Roberval, until a suitable marriage takes place. Roberval, absent much of the time, is a friend of the king, a voyager, an adventurer, and a speculator. Her idyllic childhood is shattered when she is moved to the austere north tower along with her beloved nurse Damienne, her teacher, and her young companion Claire. Her palatial château has been mortgaged and leased to strangers, and her lands sold. No longer marriageable, Marguerite is at the mercy of Roberval, who has stolen her fortune and her future. She and her loyal nurse are taken with him on his voyage to the New World, where he is establishing a colony in New France.
On the voyage, Roberval proves to be a harsh and cruel commander. When Marguerite and Auguste Dupré, Roberval’s secretary, fall in love, Roberval’s anger explodes. Planning to kill the lovers, he decides instead to abandon them on one of the rocky, desolate islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Stranded with few necessities, Marguerite, Auguste, and Damienne labor to build a shelter, keep a fire, and gather food as the deep, dark winter descends.
The desolate landscape and brutal cold are described in language vivid and visceral as each day brings new challenges and new dangers. Despair threatens to bring Marguerite down as loss overwhelms her. It is not a question of if Marguerite survives, but how she survives for over two years and makes her way back to France. She reclaims her agency and takes control of her life in brave and admirable choices. Drawn from 16th-century contemporary accounts, one by Queen Marguerite of Navarre in the Heptameron, Goodman’s fictional biography is a remarkable story.
