In America, not believing in God is anti-American, isn't it?

At fifty years of age, Roman Carr, whose real name is Romain Carrier, has made it. His television series In Gad We Trust, a scathing satire of the United States and its relationship with God, is a huge hit. He is carving out an enviable place for himself in Hollywood, the end of a long, tortuous journey for the man who fled his Gaspe Peninsula village in murky circumstances back in 1962.

Both a coming-of-age story and a historical epic, Metis Beach is a chronicle of the great American...