The Lost Diaries of Susanna Moodie: A Novel

An engrossing novel of historical fiction for readers of The Bride of New France and The Birth House, exploring the intimate life of one of Canada’s most inimitable pioneers and revered literary figures

When the accomplished but penniless writer Susanna Moodie followed her ebullient husband from England to the backwoods of Canada in the 1830s, she was woefully unprepared for life in the wilderness. Her story of survival is part of our national mythology, inspiring a generation of writers from Margaret Atwood to Timothy Findlay. Now, respected writer and editor Cecily Ross ?gives us an unprecedented fictional portrait of Moodie—the sister, the wife, the mother, the writer, a woman confronting both the wilds of Canada and the wilderness of her own heart. Told through imagined “lost diaries,” the novel explores Susanna’s innermost life from childhood through the worst challenges of pioneering in an unforgiving landscape with her devoted but hapless and often absent spouse. Part love story, part coming of age narrative, this captivating novel brings to vivid life Moodie’s courage, wit and strength, as well as her moments of despair. The Lost Diaries of Susanna Moodie shows how one woman, against all odds and adversity, prevailed and made this savage and beautiful land her own.