Powerful story of sisters cruelly torn apart by a shameful event in British-Australian history.
London 1962. A strict and loveless English children’s home, or the promise of Australian sunshine, sandy beaches and eating fruit straight from the tree. Which would you choose?
Ten-year-old Lucy Rivers and her five-year-old sister Charly are thrilled when a child migrant scheme offers them the chance to escape their miserable past.
But on arrival in Sydney, the girls discover their fantasy future is more nightmare than dream.
Lucy’s lot is near-slavery at Seabreeze Farm where living conditions are inhuman, the flies and heat unbearable and the owner a sadistic bully. What must she do to survive?
Meanwhile Charly, adopted by the nurturing and privileged Ashwood family, gradually senses that her new parents are hiding something. When the truth emerges, the whole family crumbles. Can Charly recover from this bittersweet deception?
Will the sisters, stranded miles apart in a strange country, ever find each other again?
A poignant testament to child migrants who suffered unforgivable evil, The Lost Blackbird explores the power of family bonds and our desire to know who we are.
Available as E-book and paperback.
Reviews
Olga Núñez Miret, author/translator (English/Spanish), psychiatrist, book reviewer: … a must for lovers of historical and women’s fiction. Beautifully written, carefully
researched, and emotionally charged, the three books are connected by an amulet and the female legacy it represents … adventures of strong, brave, and determined women who will pull at your heartstrings.
Terry Tyler, author: An intricately researched and beautifully written series that artfully shows how the threads of the past link generations together.
Claire Whatley, reader, writer: For readers who love gripping, well-written, intelligent fiction. Three stand-alone stories linked by a bone angel talisman that is passed down to midwife women over generations of a single family. In each, a different female protagonist faces the challenges of the age – Black Death, French Revolution, World War II – as well as the challenges contained in every human life: love, loss, friendship, betrayal, tragedy and heart-rending choices.
C. P. Lesley, author of The Golden Lynx and other novels: Three compelling heroines linked by a bone angel with a mystical past–a French village struggling with revolution, world war, and Black Death. Follow Victoire, Céleste, and Héloïse as each undertakes a richly imagined, emotionally complex journey toward a definition of womanhood that is uniquely her own. This trilogy–on my list of Hidden Gems–is one not to be missed.
Josie Barton, Book Blogger at JaffaReadsToo: … grips your imagination from the very beginning and the momentum doesn’t stop until all the stories are completed.