Flight Of Gemma Hardy
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4,5 • 17 notes
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- 11,99 $
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- 11,99 $
Description de l’éditeur
When her widower father drowns at sea, ten-year-old Gemma Hardy, an only child, is taken from her native Iceland to Scotland, to live with her uncle’s family. But the death of her doting guardian soon after leaves Gemma under the resentful eye of her aunt. When she receives a scholarship to a private school, Gemma believes she’s found the perfect solution, and she eagerly sets out again to a new home. But at Claypoole, she finds herself treated as an unpaid servant.
To Gemma’s delight, the school finally goes bankrupt in 1959 and she takes a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands. Remote Blackbird Hall belongs to Mr. Sinclair, a rich, single London businessman; his eight-year-old niece is Gemma’s charge. An unlikely pair, Gemma and Sinclair are nonetheless drawn to each another, but their courtship is cut short by Gemma’s discovery of a secret that has shadowed her employer’s life.
Set in Iceland and Scotland in the 1950s and ’60s, The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a captivating homage to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre—a sweeping saga that resurrects the timeless themes of the original but is destined to become a classic all its own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Inspired by Jane Eyre, Livesey (The House on Fortune Street) offers vibrant prose and a feisty heroine in her fascinating sixth novel, set in Scotland in the early 1960s. After 10-year-old Gemma Hardy's parents die, she is taken in by a kind uncle, much to his wife's dismay. When her uncle dies, the novel takes on shades of Cinderella as Gemma (who had been accepted by her cousins) is made into a scullery maid. Though her aunt attempts to break her down, Gemma works hard in school, earning a scholarship place at the Claypool boarding school. Again little more than a slave, Gemma learns how to survive among the working girls. When the school closes, Gemma takes a position in the Orkneys, where she will live at the estate of the mysterious Sinclair and look after his wild niece, Nell. She and Sinclair fall in love, but Sinclair has a secret that drives Gemma to change, as well as inspiring her to trace her Icelandic roots. Although guardian angels and kind strangers turn up like an army of deus ex machinas, these plot missteps don't detract from Gemma's self-possessed determination. Captivating and moving, this book is a wonderful addition to Livesey's body of work.
