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About the Book
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Why does young, reform-minded lawyer George-Étienne Cartier join an armed uprising, only to later reject violence as the means to achieve responsible government for Canada?
In 1837, Lower Canada—today's Quebec—seethes with discontent. After savage rioting in Montreal between hardline loyalists and dissident radicals, there is no turning back. Cartier, a future Father of Confederation, commits himself to rebellion against the British Crown. At Saint Denis, Saint Charles and Saint Eustache, poorly armed Patriotes find themselves in pitched battles against the most disciplined army on the planet, battles that echo to this day. Inspired by three of Cartier’s recently discovered letters, The '37 deftly weaves fact with fiction. It imagines how an affair with a beautiful and witty schoolteacher, Dorothy Russell, changes his life—and helps ensure the birth of an independent Canada. From heated public debates to languid trysts on an isolated farmstead, from the ambiguities of exile in the United States to the wretched clarity of executions in Montreal, from withered farm fields to hints of a new industrial age, The '37 portrays a land in the grip of rapid, unrelenting change. |
About the Author
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John Kalbfleisch is the author of an earlier novel, A Stain Upon the Land, which focuses on a notorious murder that actually happened in Montreal in 1827. He has also written three works of non-fiction and is the co-author of a fourth, all centred on Montreal’s rich past.
After earning degrees in English literature at the University of British Columbia and the University of Western Ontario, he became a journalist. He spent four decades with the Montreal Gazette as a reporter, editorial writer and op-ed page editor, as well as writing his Second Draft column on the city’s history. John Kalbfleisch now lives with his wife in Perth, Ontario. |
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Reviews
Kalbfleisch’s stories are splendid, both the actual historical ones and those he has imagined. And he has a fine eye for small, telling details—some that make us feel we are living in the past, such as the Patriotes’ insistence on uncomfortable homespun clothing, and others that show us how many things remain unchanged, such as Montreal’s famously reckless drivers.
Bravo! This fellow has a wonderful grasp of early Canadian history. We all need to learn more and, through his fictional accounts, John teaches us that Canadian history is actually very engaging.
A welcome addition to Kalbfleisch's literary works. If it is half as good as A Stain Upon the Land, it will be splendid.
It is without a doubt his best work. I enjoyed it very much. There was poetry to it.
While I was reading The '37 I thought of civil wars throughout the world, and for some reason I kept thinking of Syria. It was actually startling to me that Lower Canada had such a violent civil war, “supervised” by the British.
- Joan Fraser (retired senator), Montreal
Bravo! This fellow has a wonderful grasp of early Canadian history. We all need to learn more and, through his fictional accounts, John teaches us that Canadian history is actually very engaging.
- David Bratton, London, Ont.
A welcome addition to Kalbfleisch's literary works. If it is half as good as A Stain Upon the Land, it will be splendid.
- Ian Newbould (retired president, Mount Allison University), Toronto
It is without a doubt his best work. I enjoyed it very much. There was poetry to it.
- Michael McNally, Hudson Heights, Que.
While I was reading The '37 I thought of civil wars throughout the world, and for some reason I kept thinking of Syria. It was actually startling to me that Lower Canada had such a violent civil war, “supervised” by the British.
- Susan Heffernan, PhD, Human Studies, Laurentian University
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