Here to Stay: Lives in 17th Century Canada with Denis Ledoux

Denis Ledoux is known for writing his family stories (his mother’s, We Were Not Spoiled/A Franco-American Memoir; his spouse’s, A Sugary Frosting/Life in a New England Parsonage; and his own, French Boy/A 1950s Franco-American Childhood). He has now taken his family writing into the far past with Here to Stay/Lives in 17th Century Canada. In this latest book, he writes of four early family members from the 1660s, and by placing them in a carefully delineated historical context, has created a glimpse into the first century of French Canada as our ancestors struggled against odds to maintain a foothold on the continent. Here to Stay is a book filled with heroic effort, profound tragedy and perilous survival. “They were not like us,” he concludes. “They were epic heroes!”