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Pelican Girls

A Novel

Audiobook
2 of 3 copies available
2 of 3 copies available

A sweeping epic in the vein of Philipp Meyer's The Son and Min Jin Lee's Pachinko and inspired by a true story, this stunning US literary debut captures the never-before-told journey of the Baleine Brides: a ship full of young women plucked from a Paris asylum and sent to marry settlers in North America's rough Louisiana Territory.

Paris, 1720. La Salpêtrière hospital is in crisis: too many occupants, not enough beds. Halfway across the world, France's colony in the wilds of North America has space to spare and needs families to fill it. So the director of the hospital rounds up nearly a hundred female "volunteers" of childbearing age—orphans, prisoners, and mental patients—to be shipped to New Orleans.

Among this group are three unlikely friends: a sharp-tongued twelve-year old orphan, a mute 'madwoman,' and an accused abortionist. Charlotte, Pétronille, and Geneviève, along with the dozens of other women aboard La Baleine, have no knowledge of what lies ahead and no control over their futures. Strangers brought together by fate, these brave and fierce young women will face extraordinary adversity—pirates, slavedrivers, sickness, war—but also the private trauma of heartbreak and unrequited love, children born and lost, cruelty and unexpected pleasure, and a friendship forged in fire that will sustain through the years.

At once a gorgeously written work of startling depth and emotion and a gripping drama marrying high-seas adventure with pioneer grit, Pelican Girls is a powerful, thought-provoking novel about female friendship and desire and the daunting compromises women are forced to make to survive.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 29, 2024
      French novelist Malye’s epic and nuanced U.S. debut portrays the travails of 90 women plucked from La Salpêtrière, a Parisian asylum, for an arduous voyage to Louisiana in 1720, where they will be matched with Frenchmen to help populate the colony. Among the passengers is Charlotte, an orphan whose only home has been the hospital; the savvy Geneviève, who was committed after she was caught providing abortions; and the largely silent Pétronille, whose wealthy family abandoned her for committing the indiscretion of carrying on an innocent friendship with the family gardener. In Louisiana, having survived scurvy and pirate attacks on the long voyage, Charlotte marries a boat guide, Geneviève a fur trapper, and Pétronille an exporter. The story stretches into the next decade as the women rely on their bonds with each other. After Charlotte is widowed, she moves into Geneviève’s house to work as a nanny for her children. Meanwhile, Pétronille again draws ire for an improper friendship, this time with a Natchez woman who tutors her in healing arts. Though Malye’s wide lens can sometimes make for an unfocused narrative, each of the three principal characters are richly drawn, and the author displays a formidable grasp on her historical setting. It adds up to a well-crafted story of women finding ways to survive against forbidding odds.

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  • English

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