In the twilight of the 17th century, fanatic persecution of the few remaining Cathars, practitioners of a medieval offshoot of Christianity, brings tragedy to a prominent French family.

Loux’s tale opens in the Pennsylvania settlement of Penn’s Woods decades after the mysterious disappearance of Jean-Pierre Laux, the eponymous seigneur. A letter arrives at the chateau of Magdalena Laux, wife of a Pennsylvania legislator, warning that a man claiming to be the long-lost father of Magdalena’s own father, Pierre, is on a ship bound for Philadelphia. The life of 20-something Magdalena, a self-proclaimed Cathar, will soon be inexorably changed. Here, the novel jumps back in time to the beginning of the ordeals of Jean-Pierre Laux. He, a Protestant feudal overlord of ancestral land dating back many generations, is walking with his son Pierre, preparing for a two-week trip for an audience with the Catholic King Louis XIV. Jean-Pierre’s beloved wife, Eleanor, is a secret practitioner of the Cathar faith. Although official Catholic persecution of the Cathars has ended centuries earlier, Eleanor worries that the king’s new policy of stationing troops in the home of Protestants will reveal her secret. Her fears are warranted. As Jean-Pierre heads out on his journey, he faces considerable danger. Will he fall prey to a maniacal priest who obsessively hunts out Cathars? Loux prefaces his elegant novel with a useful historical primer for readers not familiar with the history of the Cathars, practitioners of an ascetic and gnostic form of early Christianity. The beautiful, at times lyrical, prose ambles slowly but captivatingly, alternating between Jean-Pierre’s experiences and the lives of his descendants in Pennsylvania. It’s a tale of violence, tragic losses, regret, personal growth, and reconciliation, with vivid portrayals of a curious cast, especially of one compelling secondary character, a waif who takes on increasing importance. With a touch of mysticism plus a couple of deranged villains, the novel is an intriguing mix of personal saga and disturbing religious history.

An emotionally intense drama with a satisfying, unexpected conclusion.

A debut novel about two colonists in America whose lives become entwined during the early years of the 18th century.

Twenty-two-year-old Lawrence Kraymer is tired in body and soul. He owns a successful Philadelphia brewery inherited from his cruel, exacting grandfather, who raised him after the untimely death of his unwed mother. Seeking a sense of inner peace that persistently eludes him, Lawrence hires John, a young Native American, to lead him on a hunting expedition through Pennsylvania’s frontier country. Later, when John heads off to New York, Lawrence chooses to stay behind in the wilderness—but without his guide, he soon finds himself lost. In a move that will change his destiny, he seeks refuge from a storm at a farm owned by Pierre Laux. There, he meets and is captivated by the lovely, 18-year-old Catherine, Pierre’s eldest daughter. As the novel unspools, readers learn that Pierre was born an aristocrat in southern France but arrived in Philadelphia as a destitute, 13-year-old orphan. When Lawrence later decides to build a chateau near Pierre’s farm, it triggers the elder man’s painful memories of life in the Pyrenees and the loss of his mother—the first indications that the novel will take a tragic turn. From the first pages, Loux, a poet and short story author, writes with a grace and a clear love of language that permeates the narrative, as when the story explores the linguistic schisms that divided northern and southern France during Pierre’s childhood. The author includes just enough period detail to bring the era to life without feeling excessive and incorporates intriguing tidbits about French religious conflict in Pierre’s backstory. Although the action in this slow-paced, character-driven tale, which focuses mainly on Pierre, Lawrence, and Pierre’s oldest son, Jean, frequently meanders, there are always signs of approaching conflict from a past that’s not “content to rest in peace.”

A haunting, eloquent, and engaging historical drama.