Turn-of-the-century Australia holds one of the world's most magnificent settings for Book One of the new Australian series. From the jungles of the Queensland coast to the servitude of the sugar plantations to the mysterious lives of the Aborigines, here is an exciting story with all the elements you would hope for in Christian fiction. Samantha Connolly and her sisters have attempted to escape the bleak future in Ireland by emigrating to Queensland in response to an offer of indenture. Circling half the globe she discovered a world she had never anticipated or desired--yet her home was now a world away! Their master, sugar planter Cole Sloan, is embroiled in legal tangles and economic woes, trying to keep his plantation afloat. Samantha's middle sister is fortunate to find a beau in the local preacher while Samantha is drawn to Sloan. But callousness, unethical dealings, enslavement, and eventually murder sully the man--or is he a victim of his past and present circumstances? Tangeld paths weave together as the brief white occupancy of Australia crosses the lengthy past of the Aborigines. How will the Gospel find its way into their lives, and will morals be upheld even at the cost of sacrifice?
Albert Facey’s story is the story of Australia.Born in 1894, and first sent to work at the age of eight, Facey lived the rough frontier life of a labourer and farmer and jackaroo, becoming lost and then rescued by Indigenous trackers, then gaining a hard-won literacy, surviving Gallipoli, raising a family through the Depression, losing a son in the Second World War, and meeting his beloved Evelyn with whom he shared nearly sixty years of marriage.Despite enduring unimaginable hardships, Facey always saw his life as a fortunate one.A true classic of Australian literature, Facey’s simply penned story offers a unique window onto the history of Australian life through the greater part of the twentieth century – the extraordinary journey of an ordinary man.