The Book of Secrets
by Fiona Kidman
On This Page
Description
A classic, prize-winning novel about an epic migration and a lone woman haunted by the past in frontier Waipu. In the 1850s, a group of settlers established a community at Waipu in the northern part of New Zealand. They were led there by a stern preacher, Norman McLeod. The community had followed him from Scotland in 1817 to found a settlement in Nova Scotia, then subsequently to New Zealand via Australia. Their incredible journeys actually happened, and in this winner of the New Zealand show more Book Awards, Fiona Kidman breathes life and contemporary relevance into the facts by creating a remarkable fictional story of three women entangled in the migrations - Isabella, her daughter Annie and granddaughter Maria. McLeod's harsh leadership meant that anyone who ran counter to him had to live a life of secrets. The 'secrets' encapsulated the spirit of these women in their varied reactions to McLeod's strict edicts and connect the past to the present and future. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This story backgrounds the arrival of the Scottish settlers in Waipu, Northland NZ. We follow their voyage from Scotland through the diaries of Isabella MacQuarrie, narrated by her granddaughter, Maria. A group of Scottish migrants left the Highlands of Scotland with charismatic and domineering, Norman McLeod, travelling first to Novia Scotia, then on to Cape Breton, then Australia before finally settling in Waipu. They hold Scottish celebrations there annually still and this book goes some way to telling of the trials and tribulations they suffered on the way. Fiona Kidman brings to life the experiences of the women especially, in this tale of what really amounted to an early religious sect.
Une histoire assez fascinante, tirée de faits réels, celle d'une communauté d'Ecossais souffrant de la famine et de la misère, qui, en 1817 quitte tout pour suivre un certain Mc Leod, homme au charisme puissant qui fustige l'église écossaise qu'il trouve trop "molle" et ce pays qui lui semble plonger
Apr 17, 2015French
Une vie? une double vie? Une réclusion ou bien une malédiction? Il est certain que cette "sorcière" ne se laissera pas oublier facilement.
Jun 15, 2022French
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
38+ Works 593 Members
Fiona Kidman is a novelist, short-story writer, and educator from New Zealand. In 1988, Kidman's novel, The Book of Secrets, received the New Zealand Book Award for fiction. Another of her works, Mrs. Dixon and Friend, was a collection of stories from 1982 that featured Brenda Dixon, a character who would be the central figure 15 years later in show more her novel, The House Within. Kidman taught creative writing at Victoria University Department of Extension and contributed an essay on writing to Mutes and Earthquakes, an anthology edited by New Zealand's Poet Laureate, Bill Manhire. She also participated in the 1997 Winnipeg Writers' Festival, and she received a $27,000 grant from Creative New Zealand in 1997 to write a novel. She received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to literature and the New Zealand Scholarship in Letters. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Book of Secrets
- Original publication date
- 1988
- Important places
- New Zealand
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 59
- Popularity
- 520,709
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.95)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 1
