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Drawing from a richly layered history and based loosely on the life of Pierre de Béhaine, Le Colonial is an unforgettable and romantic epic. A shimmering tapestry of swords and silk, it explores faith, passion, and the perils of ambition.
A stunning epic of Asian history in the tradition of James Clavell, from
the author of The Tapestries and The Unwanted.
Paris in the late 1700s. The France of Victor Hugo. This is the world
that three men will leave behind as they embark on a mission of faith and
passion in Annam, an exotic land in the Far East. And although they imagine
that they will sail into the harbors peacefully and bring hope and meaning
into the lives of the faithless, what they discover when they arrive is
civil war, warlords on horseback, floods, and famine. In a hostile new
world, these three men - François Gervaise, a handsome painter; Henri
Monange, a young runaway; and Pierre de Béhaine, a charismatic priest -
discover that although they have come to convert the heathens, it is their
own hearts and souls that are changed forever. Their dreams of colonial
glory dashed, they must reinvent the meaning of their journey.
Drawing from a richly layered history and based loosely on the life of
Pierre de Béhaine, Le Colonial is an unforgettable and romantic
epic. A shimmering tapestry of swords and silk, it explores faith, passion,
and the perils of ambition.
CHAPTER ONE
Avignon, France, 1771
The brush was a hickory twig, its end hammered into a soft, pointed
fringe. The painter drew it across the canvas, tracing a long stroke of
cobalt blue - the light of predawn. Another dash, a smear, a twist of the
bristles, and a cluster of areca palms silhouetted the horizon. The only
movement was a blur of wind across a colony of stars.
It was the first day of winter. The inside of the church was so cold that
he could see his breath in the candlelight. The painting was a rectangle of
oils on sheepskin, stretched on a wooden frame. Its image resembled nothing
of the splendor and immensity of the surrounding medieval architecture but
was cast in the bold colors of his imagination. Hanging by cords over his
wool coat was a collection of curios - fragments of broken clay pots,
pinecones, a metal goblet, clumps of feathers, a bird's wing. The rest of
his belongings ...
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