In the Land of the Long White Cloud

I really loved this story. The characters were great. The setting in New Zealand was so interesting to me. This was a book that I found hard to put down. It's a long book but I was interested all the way to the end. I am excited to read the other books in this trilogy! There are some scandalous parts, it reminded me a little of Colleen McCullough's The Thornbirds.

Ein richtiges "Weiber-Buch", das auch jedem gefallen könnte, der die Highlander Saga von Diane Gabaldon mag. Habe das buch an zwei Tagen mit vielem gekicher, "Oh mein Gott!"-Ausrufen und flüchen gelesen. Witzig, kurzweilig und am Schluss sogar richtig spannend.

This novel, translated from the German, centers around two women who emigrate to New Zealand. Helen Davenport, a governess who keenly hears her biological clock ticking and desperately wants a family of her own, responds to a letter in her church newsletter seeking wives for "well-established" gentlemen in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although she can't afford the passage, she is offered the chance to escort seven orphan girls destined to become servants in the new country, giving her the chance to join the gentleman farmer with whom she has struck up a correspondence. Gwyneira Silkham, youngest daughter of a Welsh lord/sheep baron, longs for adventure and a place where she can be free of the social strictures of her class. When her show more father loses several rounds of poker to a visiting New Zealand sheep baron, the man, Gerald Warden, offers to take the bet of asking for Gwyneira's hand--not for himself, but for his son--and she willingly accepts. The two women become friends aboard the ship bound for New Zealand. But, of course, once they arrive, all is not as rosy as the two women had hoped.

Although this novel leaned a little more towards romance than I usually prefer, I enjoyed the details of life on a sheep farm--one more successful than the other--and the conflicts both women encountered with their husbands and the land and their relationships with the Maori. The story--saga, really--continues for about 20 years. This is the first of a trilogy, which continues with Helen's and Gwyneira's grandchildren in the second installation, which I plan to read soon. (But not before a break to read something entirely different.) show less

Wonderful saga of an unfamiliar land

I never knew very much about New Zealand but this book had such a wonderful sense of place and history. The main characters were two women - Helen and Gwyneira- who met on a ship as they sailed from London in search of a better fate than they were destined for at home. Although their lives took very different paths upon arriving in the strange new land, their friendship lasts a lifetime. As with all multigenerational sagas, there were many characters to keep track of, but the author made their stories real and interesting: orphans from London sent as virtual slaves, sheep barons growing wealthy by stealing land from the peaceful and unsuspecting Maiori tribe, prospectors drawn by the promise of gold show more and untold riches, etc. show less

Helen Davenport, governess for a wealthy London household, spots a church advertisement seeking young women to marry New Zealand bachelors and begins corresponding with a gentleman farmer. When her church offers to pay her travels if she will accompany a group of orphan girls to New Zealand, she takes up the opportunity. On the ship, she meets Gwyneira Silkham, her hand won in a game of blackjack for a New Zealand sheep baron's son. The two women have never met their prospective husbands, and things turn out very differently than they expected in this new land.

I had my reservations about both a translated from German book and a book about my homeland by someone who doesn't live here - however I thought it was very well done and as I show more have just found out that it is part of a saga I'll seek out the next title. show less

Two young English women embark on an adventure to New Zealand in the late 19th century to marry unknown men. Both surprised by their partners, who turn out to be bitter enemies. Yet the women find a way to stay in touch and we follow their lives, that of their children, as well as orphan girls sent on the same boat to work in this strange place on the edge of the world, with the ever mysterious Māori playing an important part of the plot. Excellent first book in a trilogy.

I stopped this audiobook in large part because of the narrator. Her voice had a forced, strained quality which grated – which is odd, really, because I listened to a lengthy classic a while back read by the same narrator, and she was the only reason I made it through that one. Which may have something to do with the fact that this was via earphones and that was not? I don't know. I do know I couldn't face another nineteen hours of that stressed reading.

It wasn't entirely down to the reading, though. The writing was … questionable. A character "showered her husband" with a gaze? A horse is fresh "despite having ridden"? A girl liked to "Ride in the male position"? A horse attempted to "nuzzle her expressively"? Someone else was show more "green behind the ears"?? (Were they Vulcan?) A peer is routinely referred to not as His lordship or Lord Whatsit but as "the lord"? The girls featured in the story spent half their time blushing, and the other half being annoying, and it was with a little sadness that I relinquished the idea of the arranged marriage in a new land and all those other tropes I seem to be attracted to.

Now if only I hadn't bought the Kindle edition as well. show less