Shadows on the Rock (Willa Cather Scholarly Edition Series) Book

What might be called a 'stop and smell the roses' sort of book. Like an aninated Disney film, somewhere between The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast--I kept expecting someone to suddenly burst into song.

In literary terms it is a mix of The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Cadfael Chronicles and Cranford. It is something read for the characters and descriptions of Canadian winters and life in Quebec 300 years ago rather than for the plot, which is episodic, without an antagonist--the closest you're going to get is a materialistic Bishop--in sight. Were I to recite the plot it would sound like one of the books Judi Dench summarizes in the movie Philomena.