Half epic, half farce, written in the eloquent style of the i8th century but with an entirely modern sensibility, The Straw Man reads like a fusion of Tom Stoppard and Tom Jones. The time: 1759 and after. The place: The walled fortress of Quebec and surrounding cotmtryside. The situation: In a town surrounded by English troops on the eve of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, a small troupe of strolling French actors is desperately trying to make a living while the Quebec citizens have, to put it mildly, other things on their minds than an evening of Marivaux or a clever pantomime. When they acquire the assistance of the mysterious Benjamin de Saint-Ours, whose shadowy history fore-tells an even more intriguing future, the troupe’s fortunes take a dramatic swing. How the comedians fare during the constant bombardment, Quebec’s ultimate surrender, and its confused aftermath forms a powerful backdrop to the subsequent action of this brilliant and evocative novel.