My Heart and Other Black Holes - Jasmine Warga

Synopsis

Aysel and Roman are practically strangers, but they've been drawn into an unthinkable partnership. In a month's time, they plan to commit suicide - together.

Aysel knows why she wants to die: being the daughter of a murderer doesn't equal normal, well-adjusted teenager. But she can't figure out why handsome, popular Roman wants to end it all....and why he's even more determined than she is.

With the deadline getting closer, something starts to grow between Aysel and Roman - a feeling she never thought she would experience. It seems there might be something to live for, after all - but is Aysel in so deep she can't turn back? 

~~~~~

'Maybe we all have darkness inside of us and some of us are better at dealing with it than others.'

I was keen to read My Heart and Other Black Holes when I found out about it, as the storyline and themes really interest me personally. I read it quickly and found the story gripping and compelling, and I felt compassion for Aysel and Roman, two young people, total strangers, who plan to take their own lives, together. 

For the most part I thought this was an excellent book; I was so glad to see something written in young adult fiction exploring difficult, complex feelings of guilt, and dealing with deep depression, and in this case focussing on teenagers. This is an impressive, moving and honest debut novel with a frank and well portrayed depiction of depression, sadness and self-blame. 

There are some excellent scenes and a real understanding and compassion of depression is demonstrated in the writing, as well as the difficulty some people can have with interactions with others, retreating into themselves so far that their outlook on the world becomes very bleak indeed, believing they are everything their illness tells them they are. The author convincingly depicts problems within different relationships, whether between siblings, mother-daughter, mother-son - so as well as depression and the individual, the novel looks at different family structures and friendships too and how they are affected. 

My main quibble was that I personally was not a hundred percent sure about the ending and whether it felt right to me, but I would definitely recommend others read this novel and decide for themselves. This story affected me in the way I think I thought the book The Fault in Our Stars would but didn't. 

I read a proof copy a while ago now and I hope when the finished book appears here in the UK that there will be appropriate help and support links at the back for the UK for anyone who might need them (as the novel is set in the USA). I do think it is important that topics like this are covered, sensitively. 

I did find parts of this story upsetting and notice my mood drop, so if you doubt your strength do think about whether it is the right time for you to read this, and whether it will help you. 

Review copy received via amazon vine 

Love and Treasure - Ayelet Waldman

'He opened the little velvet bundle, and found a piece of women's jewellery, a large pendant decorated wth an enamel painting of a peacock in vivid purple and green, with white accents...'

Love and Treasure is a novel that spans a century, with a story that begins with a brief prologue in 2013, takes us back to 1945, then forwards again to later in 2013, and back once more, further this time to 1913. I found myself drawn into the story immediately, and was intrigued by what Jack Wiseman had asked of his granddaughter, Natalie Stein, who has arrived to visit him. Jack is very ill now, and Natalie is in an unhappy state after her marriage has ended. He entrusts her with the role of finding the original owner of a pendant which she wore on her wedding day and returning it to them. The first major part of the narrative begins in 1945, where is Jack is an American soldier from New York stationed in Salzburg after the end of the Second World War. 

Ayelet Waldman does a great job with her characterisation; I felt I really got to know what sort of man Jack was through her portrayal of him, and I admired him. I found this first third of the story captivating, and I wondered what would happen between Jack and Ilona, the lady he meets in Salzburg, a displaced person originally from Hungary. Jack is charged with looking after the contents of the Hungarian Gold Train, items stolen from Hungarian Jews during the war and which are being stored by the US in Salzburg after they intercepted the train. Jack and Ilona are both Jewish, but with wildly different experiences of life in recent years. Ilona has lost her home, her belongings, endured the horror of concentration camps and seen most of her close family put to death by the Nazis; she clings on to the hope that her sister Etelka may still be alive. Jack is a warmhearted good man determined to try and do the right thing, and he soon falls in love with Ilona, but always treating her with kindness and gentleness;

'He would just sit here next to her. He wouldn't bother her. He wouldn't touch her or speak to her or force himself on her in any way. He would just sit here and wait and show her by waiting that he would always be here, that she could trust him never to leave her alone.' 

One of the items that Jack notices amongst the thousands of things on the train is a pendant in the shape of a peacock. He finds it in a jewellery case that bears the name of a jeweller in the city where Ilona lived, Nagyvarad. It is this item that is the thread that links the different parts of this novel together, linking the stories of several Jewish people over this hundred-year period. This is what Jack passes to his granddaughter Natalie in the prologue. 

The second part of the narrative brings us back to 2013, and takes us to Budapest, where we find Natalie embarking on her quest to trace the origins of the pendant; here she meets art historian Amitai Shasho, who grew up in Israel and who himself has a keen interest in art and artefacts stolen from Jews during the war. The final part of the novel then takes us back to Budapest, this time in 1913, and features a first-person narrative by a Freudian psychoanalyst. I don't want to give too much more away about the plot here. 

UK hardback edition cover

I think Ayelet Waldman writes passionately about her subjects here, and she has created an intriguing narrative through which she explores many things; aspects of history, the loss of a home and the search for a new one, the differences between people, relationships between men and women, introducing fascinating characters, including strong, determined females in each part of her tale. It's a well-researched and richly imagined historical novel which swept me away, strongly evoking the periods and places featured in each of the different parts of the story. I feel that her portrayal was honest and frank, she doesn't shy away from difficult areas but confronts them as part of her narrative. 


Each part of the story intrigued me, though I must admit that I particularly loved reading the section of the novel involving Jack and Ilona in 1945-6, the compelling portrayal of them living through such difficult days and trying to find the way forward. Love and Treasure depicted aspects of history and politics which I had known little about and I feel like it increased my understanding of some subjects too. This is the first novel I've read by this author and on the basis of this one I'd certainly look out for more of her books. 

I reviewed Love and Treasure as part of the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour. See below for more information.

Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/loveandtreasuretour

Tour Hashtag: #LoveandTreasureBlogTour


~~~~~

About the novel

Publication Date: April 1, 2014

Knopf Publishing

Formats: Ebook, Hardcover, Audio

A spellbinding new novel of contraband masterpieces, tragic love, and the unexpected legacies of forgotten crimes, Ayelet Waldman’s Love and Treasure weaves a tale around the fascinating, true history of the Hungarian Gold Train in the Second World War.

In 1945 on the outskirts of Salzburg, victorious American soldiers capture a train filled with unspeakable riches: piles of fine gold watches; mountains of fur coats; crates filled with wedding rings, silver picture frames, family heirlooms, and Shabbat candlesticks passed down through generations. Jack Wiseman, a tough, smart New York Jew, is the lieutenant charged with guarding this treasure—a responsibility that grows more complicated when he meets Ilona, a fierce, beautiful Hungarian who has lost everything in the ravages of the Holocaust. Seventy years later, amid the shadowy world of art dealers who profit off the sins of previous generations, Jack gives a necklace to his granddaughter, Natalie Stein, and charges her with searching for an unknown woman—a woman whose portrait and fate come to haunt Natalie, a woman whose secret may help Natalie to understand the guilt her grandfather will take to his grave and to find a way out of the mess she has made of her own life.

A story of brilliantly drawn characters—a suave and shady art historian, a delusive and infatuated Freudian, a family of singing circus dwarfs fallen into the clutches of Josef Mengele, and desperate lovers facing choices that will tear them apart—Love and Treasure is Ayelet Waldman’s finest novel to date: a sad, funny, richly detailed work that poses hard questions about the value of precious things in a time when life itself has no value, and about the slenderest of chains that can bind us to the griefs and passions of the past.

About the Author

Ayelet Waldman is the author of the newly released Love and Treasure (Knopf, January 2014), Red Hook Road and The New York Times bestseller Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace. Her novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits was made into a film starring Natalie Portman. Her personal essays and profiles of such public figures as Hillary Clinton have been published in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Vogue, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Her radio commentaries have appeared on “All Things Considered” and “The California Report.”

For more information please visit Ayelet’s website. Her missives also appear on Facebook and Twitter.

Her books are published throughout the world, in countries as disparate as England and Thailand, the Netherlands and China, Russia and Israel, Korea and Italy.

Buy the Book

| Amazon UK | Amazon US | Audible.com | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | IndieBound |

Watch the Book Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PkzVlToRxJg

Virtual Book Tour Schedule

Tuesday, May 27
Review at Kinx’s Book Nook
Review at A Bibliotaph’s Reviews
Wednesday, May 28
Guest Post at Passion for Novels
Thursday, May 29
Review at Mari Reads
Friday, May 30
Review at She Reads Novels
Review at Dianne Ascroft’s Blog
Monday, June 2
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Tuesday, June 3
Interview at Flashlight Commentary
Wednesday, June 4
Review at Seaside Book Corner
Thursday, June 5
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Friday, June 6
Interview at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Monday, June 9
Review at Closed the Cover
Tuesday, June 10
Interview at Closed the Cover
Wednesday, June 11
Review at A Bookish Girl
Review at Peeking Between the Pages
Friday, June 13
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews
Monday, June 16
Review at So Many Books, So Little Time
Guest Post at Historical Fiction Connection
Wednesday, June 18
Review at Let Them Read Books
Thursday, June 19
Review at Book Nerd
Friday, June 20
Review at Curling Up with a Good Book
Monday, June 23
Review at 100 Pages a Day
Tuesday, June 24
Review & Giveaway at Luxury Reading
Wednesday, June 25
Review at Lit Nerd
Thursday, June 26
Review at The Little Reader Library
Friday, June 27
Review at Man of la Book
Monday, June 30
Review at A Bookish Affair
Review at Just One More Chapter
Interview at Layered Pages
Tuesday, July 1
Interview at Jorie Loves a Story
Wednesday, July 2
Review at From L.A. to LA
Review at Mina’s Bookshelf
Thursday, July 3
Review at Jorie Loves a Story
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews

The Lost Duchess - Jenny Barden

'You like to hear of the world, don't you? To learn who's doing what and why. For a young maiden you have a lively curiosity.'

Only a few pages into this novel, the above lines are used to describe Emme Fifield, and we know immediately that she desires more from her life, beyond the realms of her role as lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, she wonders about the world that Sir Francis Drake and those who travel with him see; 'To think of such places!' she imagines, as she speaks with Lord Hertford in the opening chapter, discussing the imminent arrival of Sir Francis. Her moments spent with Lord Hertford will however take a turn for the worst and in fact increase her need to leave life at court, escaping a scandal that could ruin her. 

She joins the expedition to the New World to Sir Walter Raleigh's Virginia, to found a permanent English settlement at Roanoke, travelling under another name and assuming a role beneath her previous status, with the promise to return and report back what she learns about the place to Queen Elizabeth and Sir Francis Walsingham, her chief intelligencer. However, Emme in fact intends to stay in the new colony and never return to England again, hoping the scandalous incident with Lord Hertford can thereby remain buried in the past. 

She meets Kit Doonan, a mariner with Sir Francis Drake, whilst still in England, and her attraction to Kit is immediate and strong, and it is reciprocated by him. As Emme learns of the frightening experiences he has endured, being held hostage, taken prisoner, and set to work as a slave before being freed and finding his way home, her admiration for him grows:

'What must the mariner have been through: imprisoned, enslaved, outcast and then rescued as if brought back from the dead? What had he been through since? She watched him wipe the water from his mouth with the back of his hand, and pictured him in a prison cell, and then in a wilderness, and next on a rolling deck in the thick of a storm. He would have been graceful wherever he was, she decided; he did not need to drink from crystal to look like a gentleman.'

The attraction and will-they won't-they kind of tension between the pair of them simmers wonderfully before it becomes a great love, and Kit is a dashing, courageous and handsome hero to Emme's 'quick witted and stout-hearted' adventurous lady.  I found both the main characters engaging. Kit is not without his own secrets, his own reasons why he so strongly wants to be part of the expedition to Virginia and to help form Governor John White's City of Raleigh, and he struggles inwardly about if and when to reveal them, and to what cost.

I loved reading this well-plotted story from start to finish, and I particularly loved the time once the settlers had arrived in what was to be their new home, and the encounters and tribulations they faced there. Jenny Barden writes wonderfully in her reimagining of what might have happened to them, and to Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke. The historical detail is strong and is evidence of her interest and passion for this period and these events; the author's research into this episode in history makes for an absorbing, convincing vivid depiction of the characters, the details of life at sea, the tribes, the locations. I liked the inclusion of extracts from authentic records by real figures named in the story such as John White, Ralph Lane and others at the start of the chapters. 

She has combined a great cast of characters with plenty of action and tension to create an intelligent and informative read that I really enjoyed and also found absolutely fascinating. It's not an area I knew very much about at all, and it's inspired me to find out more about it. How wonderful to know for example that John White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare, whose birth I read about in the novel, really was the first English child born in North America, and to ponder the true mystery as to what happened to the colonists; it's intriguing. I loved reading the author's note at the end of the novel, and I was glad of the inclusion of the map at the beginning too, I referred to this several times as I read and enjoyed being able to do this.

The Lost Duchess begins as a novel set in the Elizabethan court, but it quickly becomes so much more; it's a marvellous historical novel of love, adventure and exploration, with excitement, danger and suspense; there is so much to enjoy in this novel, a compelling blend of fiction and fact. Emme declares: 'I want to be part of the brave adventure.'  Reading The Lost Duchess was an escape, I set sail and immersed myself in a grand and momentous adventure, one I'd heartily recommend!

Thank you to the author for kindly sending me a copy of this novel for an honest review as part of her Book Tour - more details below including author links.

Published by Ebury Press

~~~~~

Please join author Jenny Barden as she tours the blogosphere for The Lost Duchess from May 26-June 20.

Paperback Publication Date: June 5, 2014
Ebury Press
Paperback; 448p

An epic Elizabethan adventure with a thriller pace and a high tension love story that moves from the palaces of England to the savage wilderness of the New World.

Emme Fifield has fallen about as far as a gentlewoman can.

Once a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, her only hope of surviving the scandal that threatens to engulf her is to escape England for a fresh start in the new America where nobody has ever heard of the Duchess of Somerset.

Emme joins Kit Doonan's rag-tag band of idealists, desperados and misfits bound for Virginia. But such a voyage will be far from easy and Emme finds her attraction to the mysterious Doonan inconvenient to say the least.

As for Kit, the handsome mariner has spent years imprisoned by the Spanish, and living as an outlaw with a band of escaped slaves; he has his own inner demons to confront, and his own dark secrets to keep...

Ever since Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement in Virginia was abandoned in 1587 its fate has remained a mystery; 'The Lost Duchess' explores what might have happened to the ill-starred 'Lost Colony' of Roanoke.

Buy the Book

Amazon (AUS)
Amazon (UK)
Book Depository

About the Author

I've had a love of history and adventure ever since an encounter in infancy with a suit of armour at Tamworth Castle. Training as an artist, followed by a career as a city Jenny (Portrait 2)solicitor, did little to help displace my early dream of becoming a knight. A fascination with the Age of Discovery led to travels in South and Central America, and much of the inspiration for my debut came from retracing the footsteps of Francis Drake in Panama. The sequel centres on the first Elizabethan 'lost colony' of early Virginia. I am currently working on an epic adventure during the threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada.

My work has appeared in short story collections and anthologies and I've written for non-fiction publications including the Historical Novels Review. I am active in many organisations, having run the 'Get Writing' conferences for several years, and undertaken the co-ordination of the Historical Novel Societyís London Conference 2012. I am a member of that organisation as well as the Historical Writers' Association, the Romantic Nevelists' Association and the Society of Authors. I'll be co-ordinating the RNA's annual conference in 2014.

I have four children and now live on a farm in Dorset with my long suffering husband and an ever increasing assortment of animals.

I love travelling, art, reading and scrambling up hills and mountains (though I'm not so keen on coming down!).

Author Links

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Jenny Barden's Blog
English Historical Fiction Authors Blog

Also by Jenny Barden 

Publication Date: June 20, 2013
Ebury Press
Formats: Paperback, Ebook



 

Mistress Cooksley may be a wealthy merchant's daughter, but she blushes at my words and meets my eyes look for look. Yet I cannot hope to court her without fortune, and a dalliance with a pretty maid will not hinder me from my path.

Captain Drake's endeavour might bring me gold, but I, Will Doonan, will have my revenge.

The Spaniards captured my brother and have likely tortured and killed him. For God and St George, we'll strike at the dogs and see justice done.

I thought I'd left Mistress Cooksley behind to gamble everything and follow Drake, and here she is playing the boy at the ends of the world. She's a fool with a heart as brave as any man's. Yet her presence here could be the ruin of us all...

Virtual Tour & Book Blast Schedule

Monday, May 26
Book Blast at Reading the Ages
Book Blast at Literary Chanteuse
Book Blast at Bibliophilia, Please

Tuesday, May 27
Review at A Bibliotaph's Reviews
Book Blast at Flashlight Commentary
Book Blast at To Read or Not to Read

Wednesday, May 28
Review at Carole's Ramblings and Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell

Thursday, May 29
Book Blast at The Maiden's Court
Book Blast at Cheryl's Book Nook
Book Blast at Book Reviews & More by Kathy

Friday, May 30
Review at WTF Are You Reading?
Book Blast at The Mad Reviewer
Book Blast at Curling Up by the Fire

Saturday, May 31
Book Blast at From L.A. to LA
Book Blast at Gobs and Gobs of Books

Sunday, June 1
Book Blast at Lily Pond Reads
Book Blast at So Many Books, So Little Time

Monday, June 2
Review & Giveaway at The Tudor Enthusiast
Book Blast at The Bookworm
Book Blast at CelticLady's Reviews

Tuesday, June 3
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Book Blast at West Metro Mommy
Book Blast at bookworm2bookworm's Blog

Wednesday, June 4
Review at The Wormhole
Interview at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Book Blast at Kelsey's Book Corner

Thursday, June 5
Book Blast at Books and Benches
Book Blast at Book Lovers Paradise

Friday, June 6
Interview at Dianne Ascroft Blog
Book Blast at Kincavel Korner
Book Blast at Caroline Wilson Writes

Saturday, June 7
Book Blast at Royal Reviews
Book Blast at History Undressed

Sunday, June 8
Book Blast at Book Nerd

Monday, June 9
Review at A Chick Who Reads
Book Blast at The Musings of a Book Junkie

Tuesday, June 10
Review at She Reads Novels
Book Blast at Just One More Chapter
Book Blast at History From a Woman's Perspective

Wednesday, June 11
Review at Historical Fiction Obsession
Book Blast at Books in the Burbs

Thursday, June 12
Book Blast at Big Book, Little Book
Book Blast at Historical Fiction Notebook

Friday, June 13
Review at Susan Heim on Writing
Review at Svetlana's Reads and Views

Saturday, June 14
Book Blast at Hardcover Feedback
Book Blast at One Book at a Time

Sunday, June 15
Book Blast at Passages to the Past

Monday, June 16
Review at Layered Pages
Review at Starting Fresh
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews

Tuesday, June 17
Review at The Lit Bitch
Book Blast at Griperang's Bookmarks

Wednesday, June 18
Review & Giveaway at Luxury Reading
Book Blast at Princess of Eboli

Thursday, June 19
Review at A Bookish Affair
Review at Little Reader Library
Book Blast at Girl Lost in a Book

Friday, June 20
Review at Broken Teepee
Review at Jorie Loves a Story
Review at The Musings of ALMYBNENR
Guest Post & Giveaway at A Bookish Affair

Songs of Willow Frost - Jamie Ford

I loved Jamie Ford’s debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and so was very much looking forward to reading his new novel, and I found it another very special story, with a fascinating setting and period, and a very engaging pair of main characters in William Eng and Liu Song, or Willow Frost.  They both have a lot to overcome in their lives, are subject to poverty and prejudices, and suffer many losses.

It’s 1934, in Seattle, when we meet twelve-year-old William at Sacred Heart Orphanage, run by nuns for orphans or children who have been left there temporarily, some parents do return eventually, others do not. William is American, of Chinese descent. He has a couple of good friends there, Charlotte, and Sunny. It is Charlotte, a blind girl, with whom he shares the closest friendship, and they plot together to leave the home one day; after a previous trip to the city when William saw a movie featuring Willow Frost, he believes she is actually his mother, and determines to find her.

The story takes us back to 1921 and introduces us to Liu Song, a young woman whose mother is very ill and weak, and her mother’s unkind second husband, known as Uncle Leo. Liu Song’s own late father, and her mother, were once actors, loving to perform, and she realises she wants to follow in their footsteps. But there are so many barriers, such cruelty, she suffers sadness and pain in her life. We learn of what she has been through, so that when new happiness seems to be possible, when she meets a kind man, she is scared to believe in it: 'She hesitated to hope and dream, unsure if she could take another loss - even a rejection seemed far beyond her capacity to endure.'

For both William and Liu Song, there are highs and lows as they struggle through their lives. Being able to perform brings some happiness to Liu Song but she feels so alone much of the time. There are occasional happy moments at the orphanage, none more exciting and magical for William and the other children than when they are told that a bookmobile is visiting:

'William's excitement grew as the line shortened and smiling, delighted children began wandering off, books in hand, finding places to sit and read. William had been to the public library only once before, on a field trip, and even though he wasn't allowed to check out anything, he never forgot how it felt to wander in and see books on shelves as high as the ceiling. The library is like a candy store where everything is free.'

Songs of Willow Frost offers a moving and vivid portrayal of 1920s and 1930s Seattle, the effects of the Great Depression are to be seen as characters pass through the streets and see those who are destitute. The growing popularity of cinema as entertainment and escape is also brought to life. 

William is a courageous boy, determined to believe his mother wants him back. Willow strives to do the best she can for her son and to protect them both from those who would interfere or separate them. I found myself hoping for a better future for both William and Willow, I admired them and felt they both had an instinct for survival despite the often heavy odds being against them. I believed in both of them, and felt moved by their experiences, wanting them to break through the sad times and troubles, and find happier days ahead. 

As in his debut novel, Jamie Ford uses the dual time-frame narrative again here really well,  I liked having several chapters focussing on William's life first, and then several that took us back to discover what had happened to Liu Song, and then forwards again. The author draws on his own childhood in Seattle's Chinatown to create an authentic and evocative background canvas of the city in which the story takes place. I was engrossed in the author's depiction of the times. There were memorable well-drawn minor characters too, like Mr Butterfield at the sheet-music shop where Willow sings, and Sister Briganti at the orphanage. I was only disappointed at how things were resolved between two of the characters towards the end but I won't say who because it would be a bit of a spoiler.

I loved having the map at the front of the book and referred to it several times to follow where William or Willow were in the city at certain points in the story, it brought it to life even more for me. 

This is an absorbing, atmospheric and well-paced read of family and friendship, love and loss, tradition and culture, pain and hope. Though at times it is joyful, there is much that is so heartbreaking; despite this I very much enjoyed reading it, in particular because of the strong characterisation and the vivid, captivating depiction of the setting and the period. 

Thanks to the publisher for kindly sending me a copy of this novel for an honest review.

Published by Allison and Busby

My review of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Napoleon in America - Shannon Selin - Author Guest Post & Excerpt

Thank you to Lindsay for hosting me on the Little Reader Library. It’s an honour to be invited to share with you some thoughts about writing Napoleon in America (January 2014), which imagines what might have happened if Napoleon Bonaparte had escaped from St. Helena and wound up in the United States.

The idea for the novel stems from a visit to New Orleans almost four years ago. My husband and I stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Napoleon House. It’s called that because in 1821 some pirates were planning to rescue the former French Emperor from the island of St. Helena – where he was exiled after losing the Battle of Waterloo – and bring him to New Orleans to live in the building. As legend has it, on the day they were to sail, they learned that Napoleon had died.

Reading this on the menu, I said to my husband, “Wouldn’t that make a great story, if Napoleon had come to America.” He said, “Why don’t you write it?” I thought, why not?

My father was a history teacher who was fascinated with Napoleon, so I grew up immersed in tales about him. We visited the Waterloo battlefield when I was fourteen. History was always very close for me, something alive and interesting.

I started researching that afternoon, with a visit to the Cabildo, where the ceremony that marked the transfer of the Louisiana territory from France to the United States in 1803 was held. The museum houses a copy of Napoleon’s death mask and other Bonapartist memorabilia. New Orleans was still very much a French city in 1821. It was easy to imagine Napoleon disembarking there.

Symbolically, I wanted Napoleon to land in America on May 5, 1821, the date of his actual death. I looked back three months before that – approximately the time it would have taken to sail from St. Helena – and found an event in his captivity that might have engendered some confusion, during which Napoleon could have slipped away. One of his companions, Fanny Bertrand (the wife of General Henri Bertrand), nearly died of a miscarriage.

Because of my grounding in history, I did not want the book to be a pure flight of fancy. It had to be plausible, to the extent possible. The two big implausibilities were:

1) that Napoleon could have escaped from St. Helena, given the island’s forbidding geography and all the measures taken by the British to keep him there; and

2) that Napoleon could have lived past May 1821, given that he was dying, probably of stomach cancer. There is a theory that Napoleon died of arsenic poisoning. I don’t subscribe to this, but took advantage of it to assume that if he had been spared the final doses, he might have recovered.

Once I accepted these (that is the joy of fiction), writing the book became an exercise in asking who was around at the time, and what might they and Napoleon have done, given their personalities and the geopolitical context.

I did not have to invent characters. There were Bonapartists in the United States – former soldiers of the Grande Armée, many of whom wound up in New Orleans after their attempt to found an armed colony in Texas failed. Napoleon’s older brother Joseph was living near Philadelphia. I was able to bring in the next generation of Bonapartes: Joseph’s daughter Charlotte; the American-raised son of Napoleon’s brother Jerome; and Achille Murat, the son of Napoleon’s sister Caroline, who actually did come to the United States and eventually wound up in Florida.

I specialized in international relations at university, so to me it was interesting to ask: what would the British, French and American governments have done? The United States was still weak in comparison with the European powers, and was sandwiched between Mexico, chaotically emerging from Spanish rule, and Canada, still a British colony. The European powers were recovering from the Napoleonic Wars, and the Holy Alliance was trying to stamp out revolution wherever it appeared.

The story moves among London (Lord Liverpool and the Duke of Wellington), France (Louis XVIII and his family, as well as Napoleon’s supporters, who expect their Emperor to return to them), Austria (where Napoleon’s son is in the care of Emperor Francis I, who can’t stand Napoleon), and Rome (where Napoleon’s mother and siblings are living). And, of course, Washington, where President Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams are intent on staying out of European politics. Napoleon landing on their soil is their worst nightmare.

Meanwhile Napoleon is dealing with his own demons. He has been defeated. He has not been on the battlefield for six years. He is in physically poor shape. He is concerned about his legacy, and about the future of his son. Public opinion was very divided over him, as it still is.

I also wanted to imagine Napoleon – who had never been to the Americas – encountering the United States: the vast distances, the unsophistication of the culture compared to Europe, the practice of slavery, and the customs of the North American Indians. I will leave you with an excerpt from Napoleon in America, in which Napoleon first experiences voudou (voodoo) in New Orleans. Rose, a slave who belongs to the owner of Napoleon House, thinks the practice will help cure the Emperor of the malady with which he arrived from St. Helena.

If you’d like to read a longer excerpt, please visit my website (shannonselin.com). You can also read some of my short stories there, and check out my blog, where I talk more about the characters and other things I have come across in my research.

Excerpt from Napoleon in America by Shannon Selin

On Sunday Rose put on her best white cottonade gown, tied her finest yellow handkerchief around her head and went to mass. Beneath the jingling bells of St. Louis Cathedral she lit a candle and asked Père Antoine to say a prayer for Napoleon. After the service, she sought out her friend Marie Laveau Paris to make a gris-gris for the Emperor. Together they walked down Orleans Street to the area behind the Vieux Carré known as Congo Square, where Marie gathered the herbs and roots and animal parts she needed from the slaves’ market. While Marie fixed the gris-gris, Rose munched on a fried rice ball, then joined a swaying and clapping circle around a group of dancers. Men in African dress, ornamented with the tails of wild beasts and shells jiggling from their arms and legs, jumped and flailed to the thunder of an old man beating on a kid-skin drum and a woman pounding a gourd with two sticks. As the men danced, they chanted, to which Rose and the others responded with a two-note refrain. By the time the sunset gun dispersed the crowd, the gris-gris was ready. Marie came with Rose to present it.

“What is this?” asked Napoleon.

Marie said she would use it to call on the saints and spirits to intercede with the highest god, Bon Dieu, for his recovery. Rose said it was magic. Marchand expressed skepticism, but Napoleon, who believed in omens and lucky stars and remembered what had happened when he ignored the ghostly little red man’s warning not to launch a campaign that would take him into Russia, said, “That is fine.”

Marie spread a white cloth, on which she placed stones, candles, a picture of St. Mary, and an offering of congri and oranges. She lit the candles, cut a lock of Napoleon’s hair, put it in the gris-gris bag, and set the bag on the altar. Kneeling, she made the sign of the cross and said the invocation, “Aïe! Aïe! Voudou Maignan,” followed by the holy words and the incantation for healing. In the flickering light she herself looked otherworldly, her skin pale, her eyebrows arched, her plaid tignon a towering shadow on the wall. Napoleon closed his eyes and recollected the spells his Corsican wet-nurse had chanted over him to stave off demons.

Rose drew Marchand aside to explain that someone needed to pay for the gris-gris.

“The Emperor has no money,” said Marchand. It was true. They had been able to carry very little from St. Helena and had not yet turned any of it into specie.

Marie said the materials for the gris-gris were rare and expensive, the spirits difficult to invoke, fickle even, if due consideration were not given. She cast her eye around the room. “That will do.” She pointed to a gold snuffbox.

“Give it to her,” said Napoleon. “She has let me dream at ease.”

Author links

Napoleon in America on amazon.co.uk

shannonselin.com