Raven
By Mary McDonald-Rissanen
Island author Mary McDonald-Rissanen’s latest book Raven is a hybrid of fact and fiction about an 18th-century woman who lived on PEI in the early 19th century.
Readers enter Raven’s life with May, who finds Raven’s diary in her PEI childhood home and brings its numerous illustrations and stories to the light of day. Raven is a child of mysterious origins who bonds with her wealthy adopted family’s maid, Pamela, and documents their sojourns in nature. During the advancement of colonialism, slavery, and the increased popularity of medical science in 18th century England, Raven and Pamela’s activities with natural cures and practices are met with suspicion, which sends Pamela to prison and Raven first to exile in Wales and then PEI. Once on the Island, Raven continues to document her natural milieu along with her own family, textually and visually. A letter from Pamela interrupts her existence and she sets sail for France to claim her inheritance.
Books are available locally at Beaconsfield Historic House and the UPEI bookstore in Charlottetown, and Eptek Centre and Daisy Mae Bookshop in Summerside, or directly from author at marymcdr@gmail.com.