Small Histories

In 1902, following a logging accident in northern New Brunswick, twin brothers Jean and Louis are separated and sent to live with different families. Too young to understand what has been taken from them, they grow up apart, each carrying only fragments of a shared past. More than a century later, sixty-five-year-old John Arsenault is struggling with anxiety, grief, and unanswered questions about his family. After the deaths of his parents, he becomes haunted by the stories they never told and the secrets they carried. As he begins to piece together the lives that came before his own, John discovers that the past is never truly lost-it survives in memory, in family lore, and in the choices passed from one generation to the next. Spanning more than a hundred years of New Brunswick history, Small Histories is a moving novel about family, identity, loss, and resilience. Richly rooted in place and filled with memorable characters, it reminds us that history is not made only by kings, politicians, and famous names, but by the countless people whose stories are rarely recorded and never entirely forgotten.