Product Description
A convict colony in New South Wales, Australia is the setting for Carol Birch's new novel, based on real events.
New South Wales, 1817. Margaret Catchpole is stranded at a settler's homestead as the floodwater draws in, and she finds herself facing death-as she has several times before.
She looks back over her life-the complex and stormy partnership with Will Laud, a "hell-born-babe," that led her into the world of smuggling and into a double life. After Will is forced to flee the country, Margaret is taken on as a nursemaid by the wealthy Cobbold family, but a crime against them means she is tried and sentenced to hang. She avoids death but when an elaborate escape fails, Will is shot dead and Margaret captured. Sentenced once more to hang, she looks death full in the face. But she doesn't die. Her sentence is commuted to transportation for life to Australia.
The novel explores a deeply divided society. Ironically, by reaching the lowest depths and being cast out by the society which spawned her, Margaret finds her true role as an independent pioneer in a young colony.
--Ce texte provient de la
Paperback
édition.
About the Author
Carol Birch is the author of seven novels.
--Ce texte provient de la
Paperback
édition.