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Silence of Stone
Author(s): Annamarie Beckel
Genre(s): Fiction
Publish Date: 2008-02-05
ISBN: 1-55081-243-2
EAN: 978-1-55081-243-5
Softcover: $16.95 
Based on historical records, Silence of Stone recounts the story of Marguerite de Roberval, a young French noblewoman. During a colonizing expedition to New France in 1542, she falls in love with a soldier. Jean-François de Roberval, the commander of the expedition and Marguerite’s guardian, is so outraged at the disgrace she has brought upon the Roberval name that he abandons her, her lover, and a servant on the Isle of Demons, a small island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Marguerite survives, spending nearly a year entirely alone. More than two years after her abandonment, she returns to France, rescued from the island by a Breton fishing ship.
In Silence of Stone, Marguerite at thirty-six is an entirely different woman from the eighteen-year-old abandoned on the Isle of Demons, so much so that she speaks of her younger self as “she.” Sixteen years after her return to France, relentlessly questioned by King François II’s geographer, André Thevet, Marguerite reluctantly recounts her life on the island.
Reviews:
“Beckel’s novels are drenched in history ... The research deftly underplays the narrative, which is succinct, graphic and lyrical."
- Joan Sullivan, The Telegram
“A deeply emotional tale … Beckel uses dramatic conflict and creates Marguerite as a powerfully emotional character you won’t soon forget…a true page-turner.”
- Ashley Colombe, Downhome Magazine
"A well-written and stylistically distinctive novel ... [her] innovative diction resonates in the reader’s head long after they’ve put he book down ... Also commendable here is Beckel’s impeccable character development."
- Chad Pelley, Current Magazine
“All her narration has a compelling dream-like quality about it. Beckel’s powerful and haunting prose breathes singular life into a shadowy historical figure."
- The Northeast Avalon Times
