EASTER FLEET

Returning to the coastal country of Brittany of previous novels, this again has a sharp sense of the place, the people, and in harsher terms- etches the portrait of a woman. Cold, hard, driving, Yande is even more embittered by the death of her father, forswears her church and her God when her prayers do not save his life. And to the town of Cancale, as well as to Yande, come many bitter blows; the oysters, brought in by the Easter fleet on the holiday- defying the priest and breaking the commandment- die in the feeding beds of a strange disease; Roseline, Yando's daughter, leaves for Paris and a life of shame; Louis, their boy, leaves home to find work; and eventually Goulec, her husband, is drowned at sea- although he first saves his ship. Vercel has a certain audience; this will be for them.