The Deserter
Paul Almond
- Narrator:
- Paul Almond
- Publisher:
- McArthur & Company
- Proof-listener:
- Bo Harwood
- Length:
- 8:01:48
- File Size:
- ~ 420 MB
- Share:
- Sample:
- Listen to first chapter
- Rating:
Description
The Deserter is the first book of the Alford Saga.
Imagine you’re in a swaying hammock on a British man-o’war around 1800, riding out a harsh spring storm in a deserted estuary. Behind those high red cliffs lie a hundred miles of uncharted wilderness, populated only by ferocious indigenous peoples. If you jump ship and are caught, you will be branded a deserter - subject to death by one thousand lashes. What can you bring to help you survive? Within minutes, the ice-strewn waters will freeze your body and claim your soul. Even if this were your one chance for a life in the New World, would you jump?
Thomas Manning did, and his leap into uncertainty begins the epic tale of a pioneer family, one of the many who built our great nation. Through his and his descendants’ eyes, we watch one small community’s impact on the great events which swirl about them and bring conflicts they must face in their struggles to create homes and families.
After Thomas Manning’s leap to freedom, he is captured by the Mi’kmaq, has life threatening encounters with wild animals, lives through a barren winter in the highlands of the caribou with a tribe who befriends him and falls for a Mi’kmaq maiden.
Absorbing, touching and full of adventure, THE DESERTER is Book One of the Alford saga, a series chronicling two hundred years of Canadian history, as seen through the eyes of a settler’s family.
First Line
On his wildly swaying hammock in the Midshipman's quarters below deck, Thomas Manning tossed and turned.
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Iambik Audio ISBN: 9781926673950
Iambik Audio publication date: Dec. 14, 2011
Print ISBN: 9781552789018
Print publication date: Sept. 3, 2010
Audio distribution rights: Worldwide
Keywords/tags: savages British-Navy man-o-war Caribou thousand-lashes pioneer Quebec-history Indians log-cabins desertion survival Gaspe Micmac port-daniel
on Feb. 10, 2012, 5:20 p.m.
Having read the first three books in Paul Almond’s Alford Saga series, I can say without reservation that this is living history of the best kind. These adventure stories are a little piece of pure Canada, like chunks of frozen maple syrup containing part of our country's DNA in the way a fly is preserved in amber. This first audio book is a gem.