Beverly Swerling: Shadowbrook

Reviewed by SUSAN JACOBS

Beverly Swerling's first novel made her name as a chronicler of early American history in all its sagaesque turbulence, and her second remains true to form. While City of Dreams traced the metamorphosis of Dutch Manhattan into New York, Shadowbrook, a novel of love, war and the birth of America, ranges from the countryside of Ohio to Quebec.

Set between 1754 and 1769, it follows the deadly struggle for dominance between the French and English, helped by native American tribes (often warring among themselves), who tried to play one against the other in a desperate, doomed attempt to hold back the tide of colonialism.

In the centre of this turmoil stands Shadowbrook, the large, prized plantation owned by the Hale family.

Quentin, the hero of the piece, has a thoroughly modern consciousness of the evils of slavery and a great empathy for Native American culture, while his older brother John, heir to the estate, is nasty, brutal and mercenary. This Cain and Abel dichotomy is leavened by a third member of the household, Cormac Shea, who lives between the two worlds of his half-Irish and half-Potawatomi Indian heritage.

Before embarking on this tome, the reader is presented with four pages of important characters to wade through. Even a youthful George Washington makes a guest appearance.

This daunting list is a crucial reference point later on when the sprawling cast of Quakers, Jesuits, nuns, slaves, braves, squaws, medicine men, traders, whores and general riff-raff becomes too overwhelming. But it's worth getting to know them, as these minor characters are often superb.

We stray into bodice-ripping territory when Nicole, the beautiful Frenchwoman about to become a nun, falls for the muscled, handsome Quentin.

This familiar scenario and its accompanying dialogue come straight from the swooning cliches of historical romance. Other characters are eloquent mouthpieces for chunks of knowledge designed primarily to inform the reader. Still, these are minor quibbles in a generally vigorously written narrative.

Is Nicole swept into the cloistered Poor Clares for ever? Will Quentin finally break every bone in John's body? It never stops being a plot-driven page-turner even when we can second-guess the answer.

Swerling, a born storyteller, is at her best when describing battle-scenes and illustrating the complex, conflict-ridden relations between old and new cultures. Besides showing the intrigue, greed, self-destructiveness and tragic oppression that underpin the birth of all colonial powers, it's gripping, satisfying, pleasurable -- a damned good read.

* Bantam, $34.95

* Susan Jacobs is the author of Fighting With the Enemy: New Zealand POWs and the Italian Resistance