Madelaine Before the Dawn
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
A spellbinding tale of female defiance and rage
In a time outside time, in a world hemmed in by dark woods and silence, the villagers of Les Montées endure a life of hardship and submission. The land is stingy, the Lords are merciless, and for the village women, resistance is a futile dream.
One day, a foundling appears at the edge of the forest. Madelaine grows up to be mysterious, magnetic, and shockingly adept with an axe. One day, she slaughters a stag in defiance of the Lord's decrees. The land, the laws, and the lives of those around her tremble in response, and a new destiny begins to take root.
Madelaine Before the Dawn is a wild, lyrical novel about the inheritance of silence and the fire of female defiance. Collette has created an electrifying vision of revolt and resilience at the edge of civilization.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A feudal village is tested by the arrival of a strange girl in this galvanizing tale from Collette (The Forests). Madelaine arrives in La Foye as a feral orphan and is found by elder Rose and her adopted boy, Bran. It's decided that Madelaine should be taken in by childless Ambre and her hard-drinking husband, Léon. The peasant villagers have long abided by the rules set by the Ambroisies, masters of the region, and fear the violent heir Ambroisie-Son, who periodically rides into their village and neighboring environs to rape the women and hunt animals. When Madelaine breaks the rules by killing a deer on their masters' lands, Eugéne recognizes the dangerous spark of rebellion within the strange girl. As harvests grow scant, the merchants increase the costs of goods, causing the peasants to slide deeper into debt to the Ambroisies. When Ambroisie-Son finally sets his gaze on the beautiful Ambre and her twin sister on a fateful day, Madelaine must decide quickly whether she will continue the tradition of submission to the masters or protect her found family, no matter the cost. Collette's narrative raises weighty questions about the value of resistance and what it takes to shatter a generations-old tolerance of injustice. It's a triumph.
