It is August 1711 and Annie Jansz is sailing from Zeeland with her family to a new life in Java on board the East Indian ship Zuytdorp, cooped up in a tiny stinking cabin with her feckless father, pregnant mother and their servant, May.
The voyage takes much longer than anticipated and disease, death and intrigue mean that Annie has to grow up fast. Her family starts to disintegrate and, increasingly, Francois, a young Norwegian midshipman, is the only person she can trust. Then, in a violent storm, the Zuytdorp is wrecked off the West coast of the ‘Great South Land’ (modern day Australia.) Although both Annie and Francois survive, it is then that their struggles really begin.
A fast paced story of resilience against impossible odds, of courage and of love.
With vivid descriptions of life on board, the horrendous shipwreck and the dire conditions on land again , this is a powerful and beautifully drawn novel about survival, self reliance and a picture of what it must have been like for Europeans who found themselves stranded on the edges of Australia long before European settlement. Once again Rosemary Hayes has proved that her imagination can create a story which holds the reader’s attention until the very last line. Miriam Halahmy
Hear Rosemary speak about her shipwreck stories.
ISBN 9781909991491
