Trade Wind is a sweeping story by the brilliant M. M. Kaye, whose historical fiction is both accurate to the period and riveting in its plot, characterization, and style. This tale is set in Zanzibar of the 1840s or 1850s (before the American Civil War) and follows a young American woman, Hero Hollis, who comes to the island to stay with the family of her uncle who is an official there. Confident, cool, and utterly assured of the rightness of her cause, Hero is gripped with a burning desire to reform Zanzibar while sorting out her feelings for her tacit betrothed, Clayton Mayo. But on the voyage over she is tipped overboard during a storm (only the first of many rude upsets) and only saved from drowning by the notorious slave trader and scoundrel Emory Frost.

This set-up sounds typical of the cheap romance paperback genre, but it's nothing of the kind. There is no attraction between Hero and Emory (or Rory, as he is called). The antipathy between them is not of the polite dislike variety found in, say, Pride & Prejudice. This is disgust and a seemingly unbridgeable moral gap, between a diehard, crusading abolitionist and a shameless slave trader. How could either one of these strong characters unbend enough to fall in love with the other? Kaye does it (and it's actually fairly believable), but not in a way anyone would expect. I'll just say this: the plot is not PG, though there are no detailed descriptions.

Through political intrigues and uprisings, deep personal tragedy and loss, and finally a decimating cholera epidemic, Hero learns how presumptuous she was in her blind, self-righteous desire to fix everything that was wrong in Zanzibar. Despite Hero's do-gooder personality, she is very likable (I think we can see something of ourselves in her; at least, I could). She does find a work that is useful amid the horrors of the epidemic, but only after she has been severely humbled by adversity and suffering.

Slavery—with its cruelties, economic underpinnings, and all the arguments for and against it—plays a large role in the philosophical problems of the story. "Hell ships" and the absolute barbarities of the trade are described in enough detail to haunt the sensitive (and the author writes in the afterword that her source material was actually much more graphic, ugh). But alongside the awfulness of the slave trade in Zanzibar there is much beauty, in both location and culture, that Kaye evidently admires. The nostalgia is accompanied by a warning of the bland uniformity that Westernization inevitably brings to the far, wild places of the world.

There is such an intensity about this story, it's hard to return to lighter reads. Trade Wind has two distinct signs of an excellent book: you can't stop thinking about it and its characters days after finishing it, and you immediately want to reread and/or find more by the same author. I still prefer The Far Pavilions for the sheer, unequaled scope and breathtaking action, but Trade Wind is worthy of its author and I enjoyed it immensely. Recommended, but not for the faint of heart! ( )

I'm actually listening to this, as it was recommended by a fellow book club member who is a travel agent. I am more than half way through and don't hate it, and will finish it. ( )

Went through and read every M.M. Kaye book many years ago. I remember I loved all of them. ( )

** spoiler alert ** This is the story of Hero Athena Hollis, an extremely independent woman of the 19th century, vehemently opposed to slavery and all of society's injustices and determined to use her wealth to stamp them out. After Hero's father dies, she is invited to join her family in Zanzibar where her uncle is serving as the American Counsel. Hero's family always expected that she would marry her aunt's son by a first marriage, even though she is not sure she's in love with him.

While on voyage to...more This is the story of Hero Athena Hollis, an extremely independent woman of the 19th century, vehemently opposed to slavery and all of society's injustices and determined to use her wealth to stamp them out. After Hero's father dies, she is invited to join her family in Zanzibar where her uncle is serving as the American Counsel. Hero's family always expected that she would marry her aunt's son by a first marriage, even though she is not sure she's in love with him.

While on voyage to Zanzibar during a huge storm, Hero is washed off the boat deck and presumed dead. However, another ship captained by the infamous slave trader Rory Frost pulls up their rigging out of the sea and finds a half drowned, bruised and battered Hero. Since Hero is such a bruised mess from her ordeal, Rory has no idea what a beauty she is until sometime after she has been returned to her family. To say more of the story than this would be revealing the entire plot, which I don't like to do.

M.M. Kaye's knowledge of the Far East shines through, as it does in all her books. She stays as historically accurate as she can, and pulls no punches when describing the customs of the Island, the slave trade, the cholera epidemic and more. And once again, Kaye is able through her books to remind us that the west and east are two different and completely disparate cultures and will never see eye to eye. One other lesson brought to home in this story is when Hero's eyes are opened to the fact that for all her good intentions, going barging in to another culture you know nothing about and trying to change them "for the better" to the more "civilized culture" is inherently wrong, and one should look to correct what is one own's back yard first before trying to change the world.

This was a wonderful tale and I had a hard time putting it down. Out of print, but readily available at my county library. ( )