EVANGLINE is both a sweeping love story and harrowing journey
from Nova Scotia in Canada to New Orleans in pre-revolutionary
America. As the British drove the French out of mid-18th century
Acadia (present-day Nova Scotia), the beautiful 17-year-old
Evangeline Bellefontaine is torn by British soldiers from her
fiancé, Gabriel Lajeunesse, on the eve of their wedding.
Heartbroken but determined, Evangeline --- along with illegal
trapper Bernard Arseneau and priest Felician Abadie --- sets out on
an extraordinary ten-year journey to the French-Spanish colony of
Louisiana to seek her long-lost love.

Evangeline’s epic quest to find Gabriel brings her and her
companions across North America’s colonial wilderness,
through the French and Indian War, and into New Orleans’
rebellion against Spanish rule. As they travel from Grand Pre, Nova
Scotia in 1755 through Maryland, South Carolina, and eventually
down into and through the swamps of Louisiana in 1769, it is the
strengths and failings of Ben Farmer’s marvelously drawn
characters that drive this grand tale, as they face adversity in a
world of exile and war.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published “Evangeline: A Tale
of Acadie” in 1847 and it remains his most popular and
enduring work. While author Ben Farmer faithfully incorporates the
essential elements of the epic poem, EVANGELINE, the novel, emerges
as magnificent work of narrative fiction --- artfully blending
history, romance, adventure with an unforgettable character
portraits. It is truly a singular achievement --- rich in detail
and panoramic in scope.

EVANGELINE © Copyright 2011 by Ben Farmer. Reprinted with
permission by Overlook Hardcover. All rights reserved.