Crosses in the Sky

"Praise for Crosses in the Sky ""Bourrie's latest, like its Charles Taylor Prize-winning predecessor, Bush Runner, focuses on the clash between European and Indigenous cultures in 17th-century colonial North America. Here, it’s the events leading to the violent ruin of Huronia, traditional home of the Huron-Wendat people, as they were experienced by the French Jesuit missionary and mystic Jean de Brébeuf."" —Emily Donaldson, Globe and Mail ""In 2019, Mark Bourrie published Bush Runner, a biography of the adventurer Pierre-Esprit Radisson that was 'compelling, authoritative, not a little disturbing—and a significant contribution to the history of 17th-century North America,' as I wrote at the time. The same can be said about Bourrie's latest, Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia . . . In reinterpreting the Jesuit's martyrdom against the backdrop of Huronia's destruction, Bourrie presents a revisionist history."" —Ken McGoogan, Toronto Star ""Bourrie looks at how such early encounters between French colonists and missionaries and Indigenous Peoples continue to resonate in those same relationships."" —Quill & Quire Praise for Mark Bourrie “Bourrie’s book positively sings . . . [Big Men Fear Me] is thoroughly researched and the prose is clean and engaging . . . McCullagh deserves to be known . . . He made The Globe the dominant voice in English Canadian journalism. Bourrie’s biography does him full justice.” —Globe and Mail “There are many threads to untangle here and Bourrie—journalist, academic, and lawyer—unpicks them all. Spanning the first half of 20th-century Ontario, [George] McCullagh’s life and times become an engrossing tale of ambition, politics and bipolar illnessit’s like little else we’re likely to read this year . . . It was a tumultuous life, and Bourrie tells it with wit and humour.” —Nancy Wigston, Toronto Star “This is a joy of a biography . . . Bourrie, a historian whose last book brought explorer Pierre Radisson to life, has done right by McCullagh, and not just with the marvellous title. Canada doesn’t like tall poppies. It didn’t end well. But what a ride it was.” —Heather Mallick, Toronto Star “A remarkable biography of an even more remarkable 17th-century individual … Beautifully written and endlessly thought-provoking.” —Maclean’s “Bourrie’s writing is grounded in a strong sense of place, partly because of his own extensive knowledge of the land and partly because of Radisson’s descriptive storytelling abilities . . . a valuable and rare glimpse into 17th-century North America.” —Canadian Geographic"