Flight from the Fortress

A Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice 2005

Lyn Cook’s newest book takes place during the second seige of the Fortress of Louisbourg, 1757. Like others of her books, the story began as a tribute to a beloved place, which Lyn Cook watched grow from a neglected pile of rubble to one of the most exciting living museums in Canada. The Fortress of Louisbourg was once the bustling gateway to a string of prosperous New World settlements. In 1713, it became the battleground in a winner-take-all war between French and English. The prize? A trade monopoly in the natural resources all of Europe was begging for.

Caught in the crossfire were the citizens of Louisbourg, their wives and their children: merchants, shipwrights, adventurers and settlers, tinkers, tailors, soldiers-and spies. In Flight From the Fortress, a French boy comes looking for his English father, a spy for the British. He meets Gaby, a young girl caring for two orphaned infants, and together, they decide to flee the fortress, and find refuge in the forests beyond. As they travel, Philippe’s care for Gaby and her charges grows, but never extinguishes his hope of finding his father. He will suffer many dangers and disappointments before he is ready, like Gaby, to take the way out offered him.