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Remembrance Man: Fear and despair during the 1832 Cholera Epidemic
August 1832 - St. Francis, Western Ontario
"A two-wheel buggy rolled across the long grassy prairie near a large manor house. A man in a buckskin coat spied a young woman in a bonnet and a dirty white apron picking beans in the vegetable garden on the other side of the hedgerow. He stopped the buggy and stepped down, carefully picking up a baby boy wrapped in a blue blanket. He slipped through the hedgerow with the child under his arm and laid him down gently in a row of cabbages. He kissed the child's forehead and wiped away his tears before returning to the buggy. With her back to the road, Gerty never noticed the man and the buggy disappearing in the distance. As she collected her basket of green beans for the return to the manor house, she spotted the child in the row of cabbages. She went over and peered down at the boy with his pale, bluish complexion. His eyes lit up at the sight of her, and Gerty 'What are you doing here, little man?'"
As the cholera epidemic tears through the Canadian prairie frontier, the dead are everywhere—abandoned on roadsides, stacked in wagons, and buried in hastily dug cholera pits. No one trusts appearances anymore. Some say the dead are not always dead. Young Paolo, a gravedigger by day, earns extra money at night as a remembrance man, hired by wealthy families to watch over freshly dug graves for signs of movement, breath, or escape. It is grim work born of the dread of burying loved ones alive. When Paolo discovers a young woman who has been buried alive, he is pulled into a nightmare of revenge, madness, and long-hidden crimes. As panic spreads and social order collapses, family members turn against family members, neighbors against neighbors, and soon everyone is out for themselves.
From the bestselling author of Playing Rudolf Hess, An Absolute Secret, Shipwrecked Lives, White Slaves, and Kentucky Choirboy comes this extraordinary novel about the 1832 cholera pandemic on the western frontier in Canada. Remembrance Man is a dark, atmospheric historical novel that explores how fear corrodes humanity—and how superstition thrives when science fails. Drawing on chilling burial customs and frontier folklore, the novel captures a society unraveling under the weight of disease, greed, and despair.
Cholera had many nicknames, ‘King Cholera’ and ‘the Blue Death’, due to the bluish pallor of its victims. It caused more deaths than any other disease in the 19th century. People were deathly afraid of cholera and fear spread faster than the disease itself. Cholera victims were simply abandoned on the roads, and wagons were sent around to collect the bodies and bury them in cholera pits. During those dark days, stories spread about reopening coffins in which the dead had apparently revived after burial, only to die in a futile attempt to escape. No one wanted to bury a loved one who might still be alive, which led to the habit of keeping corpses around so that the families could be sure the person had really died.
Reader
"A great read," Ainsley MacLellan, CBC Radio Producer, "All in a Weekend."
"Remembrance Man will give you history, suspense, and a fast-moving tale all in one book. A reader cannot ask for more than that." BookSirens
"Just finished reading ‘Remembrance Man’ and I was completely blown away by this compelling and extraordinarily crafted fictional novel. The author skillfully draws upon historical facts surrounding the worldwide cholera epidemic in the mid-nineteenth century to create a thrilling and intense crime story, the kind that gets under your skin and stirs your whole being. There isn’t a dull moment throughout the book." Vivienne Gaudet, Quebec
"A two-wheel buggy rolled across the long grassy prairie near a large manor house. A man in a buckskin coat spied a young woman in a bonnet and a dirty white apron picking beans in the vegetable garden on the other side of the hedgerow. He stopped the buggy and stepped down, carefully picking up a baby boy wrapped in a blue blanket. He slipped through the hedgerow with the child under his arm and laid him down gently in a row of cabbages. He kissed the child's forehead and wiped away his tears before returning to the buggy. With her back to the road, Gerty never noticed the man and the buggy disappearing in the distance. As she collected her basket of green beans for the return to the manor house, she spotted the child in the row of cabbages. She went over and peered down at the boy with his pale, bluish complexion. His eyes lit up at the sight of her, and Gerty 'What are you doing here, little man?'"
As the cholera epidemic tears through the Canadian prairie frontier, the dead are everywhere—abandoned on roadsides, stacked in wagons, and buried in hastily dug cholera pits. No one trusts appearances anymore. Some say the dead are not always dead. Young Paolo, a gravedigger by day, earns extra money at night as a remembrance man, hired by wealthy families to watch over freshly dug graves for signs of movement, breath, or escape. It is grim work born of the dread of burying loved ones alive. When Paolo discovers a young woman who has been buried alive, he is pulled into a nightmare of revenge, madness, and long-hidden crimes. As panic spreads and social order collapses, family members turn against family members, neighbors against neighbors, and soon everyone is out for themselves.
From the bestselling author of Playing Rudolf Hess, An Absolute Secret, Shipwrecked Lives, White Slaves, and Kentucky Choirboy comes this extraordinary novel about the 1832 cholera pandemic on the western frontier in Canada. Remembrance Man is a dark, atmospheric historical novel that explores how fear corrodes humanity—and how superstition thrives when science fails. Drawing on chilling burial customs and frontier folklore, the novel captures a society unraveling under the weight of disease, greed, and despair.
Cholera had many nicknames, ‘King Cholera’ and ‘the Blue Death’, due to the bluish pallor of its victims. It caused more deaths than any other disease in the 19th century. People were deathly afraid of cholera and fear spread faster than the disease itself. Cholera victims were simply abandoned on the roads, and wagons were sent around to collect the bodies and bury them in cholera pits. During those dark days, stories spread about reopening coffins in which the dead had apparently revived after burial, only to die in a futile attempt to escape. No one wanted to bury a loved one who might still be alive, which led to the habit of keeping corpses around so that the families could be sure the person had really died.
Reader
"A great read," Ainsley MacLellan, CBC Radio Producer, "All in a Weekend."
"Remembrance Man will give you history, suspense, and a fast-moving tale all in one book. A reader cannot ask for more than that." BookSirens
"Just finished reading ‘Remembrance Man’ and I was completely blown away by this compelling and extraordinarily crafted fictional novel. The author skillfully draws upon historical facts surrounding the worldwide cholera epidemic in the mid-nineteenth century to create a thrilling and intense crime story, the kind that gets under your skin and stirs your whole being. There isn’t a dull moment throughout the book." Vivienne Gaudet, Quebec
382 pages, Hardcover
Published September 14, 2024
About the author
Nicholas Kinsey
10 books67 followersNicholas Kinsey is a British-Canadian filmmaker and author of seven historical fiction novels known for fast-paced, cinematic storytelling. After a 30-year career in film and television, he brought his screenwriting instincts to fiction, crafting gripping narratives based on real events. He works as a film producer/videographer and lives in Quebec City, Canada.
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