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The Torrents of Hope

La vallée du Richelieu, Bas-Canada, 1837. During a skirmish with soldiers of the British Empire, Stéphane Talbot’s father, an ardent Republican, disappears, leaving behind a distraught and penniless family – the family mill is in ruins – and a son animated by a ferocious hatred towards the English and especially towards Henry Blake, the officer responsible for this destruction. So Stéphane is not happy about the liaison between the Irish soldier Mervynn Parker and Catherine, his mother. Until the day Mervynn was sent to China with his regiment. Catherine, destitute, is forced to work as a maid while Stéphane joins the steamships of the St. Lawrence. During a stopover in Montreal, he meets Gustave Hamelin, an engineer who has just been hired by Henry Blake, Stéphane’s sworn enemy: he controls La Montreal Gas and Light. The two men come face to face… The Torrents of Hope is a superb historical saga, full of breath and exoticism, written by one of Quebec’s best novelists, twice winner of the Governor General’s Award, the local Goncourt.