Canadian Writers Abroad

The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier, Simon & Schuster Canada, 2026.
Reviewed by Debra Martens

Two sisters unalike: one sensible and ambitious, the other gullible and superstitious — or stupid, as another character would have it. There are some parallels to the sensible Elinor Dashwood and her unrestrained sister Marianne in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. In both narratives, the father’s unexpected death leaves them in a difficult situation. In Austen’s novel, their difficulties are worsened by Marianne’s lack of moderation in her feelings. In The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier, Marthe and Élisabeth Jossard must leave their rural home because Élisabeth sinned (she fell for her employer’s son’s promise that if she became pregnant his family would accept their marriage, and believes it is “true love”).

In this historical novel with a twist, the Jossard sisters board the ship for women destined to be brides in New France (the Filles du Roi sent by King Louis XIV between 1663 and 1673). While Marthe sets about befriending some of the other brides, her sister Élisabeth gives in completely to her fears: that there is a witch on board the ship (whom she blames for the storm at sea), and that she herself was cursed by a witch, a finger-pointing curse that caused her miscarriage and has made her barren. She isolates herself in continual prayer and hand-wringing. After she cracks her head during the storm, her wretchedness increases.

Divided into four sections by season, the first being Summer, Chevalier’s debut novel alternates points of view between the two sisters. The two months at sea are well detailed. Marthe’s sections are more informative than Élisabeth’s, whose sections I found unsettling to read, so twisted is her version of events. For example, a tall proud woman, Jeanne Roy, volunteers to answer the call of the sailors during the storm to go up on deck and mend the sails. She asks the sisters, “Have you a needle I can use?” but Élisabeth hears her say, “Your prayers are no use.” (Certainly not as useful as sewing torn sails.) Later, once they’ve reached Ville-Marie, Élisabeth nervously asks her sister where the witch is: “I speak of the witch who said our prayers were no use.” Because she has decided Jeanne Roy is a witch, she attempts to drown her by tipping the shore-bound boat. That the woman can swim convinces even Marthe that she is a witch, despite her awareness that her sister “was turning in circles, following her mind wherever it led her.”

It is not only because Chevalier lived for many years in London that I am interested in this novel, but also because I am working on a novel about a woman accused under the Criminal Code for witchcraft in Canada three centuries later. But anyone reading The Winter Witch will be asking the same questions that I am: who is the Winter Witch in the novel, and what is a witch?

There are many contenders for the role of witch in The Winter Witch. There is the old woman who barges into the tavern, pointing at Élisabeth and uttering the three words that she takes as a curse; she identifies her as the Winter Witch because of scary stories their father told them as children. Then there is the tall proud woman who may or may not be the runaway from witchcraft accusations sought by the priest on board, Father de Sancy, himself the source of awful stories about witches. Needless to say, this woman, Jeanne Roy, too obviously accused by Élisabeth, is important to the welfare of both sisters by novel’s end. Finally, there is Élisabeth herself, whose descent into superstition causes her actions to threaten the lives of others.

It’s an absorbing read. Happy Halloween.

Jennifer Chevalier was a radio reporter and producer for the BBC in London for many years. In Ottawa since 2013, she is the senior producer of CBC Radio’s The House. In 2023, a piece that she produced with Emma Godmere for The House won a Gracie Award. She’s had multiple awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and a CAJ award for investigative journalism.

Further

• The Winter Witch was longlisted for the Giller Prize.
• Cailleach, the Queen of Winter, does not eat children, as Elisabeth’s does, but does mark the seasons.
• The Gracie Award for CBC‘s The House episode; about The Gracies.
• Simon & Schuster.