Synopsis: “Plymouth, 1586. Ripped from her mother’s bosom and shipped to England as an exhibit for Sir Walter Raleigh, Nadie, a Native American Indian, is thrust into the boiling pot of brutish Tudor life. Her only protector is Tom, a young blacksmith who falls in love with her. And when Nadie is forced back to her exotic lands, to help the English colonize her people, Tom stays by her side. But the New World holds untold dangers – can Nadie find a way to protect Tom in her land?”

Review: The main conflict and theme of ‘A World Away’ is cultural dislocation. Nadie, a Native American, is brought by force to Plymouth, where she stays with (mostly) sympathetic townspeople. She is haunted by memories of the colonists burning her village, and seeing her own mother engulfed in flames. Traumatised, she survives the perilous journey to England. Fortunately, because in Virginia she had acted as a translator between her tribe and the colonists, she speaks good English. In a relatively short period of time she adopts the dress and behaviours of her captors, and attracts the eye of good-hearted Tom the blacksmith. When it is decided that Nadie is to accompany colonists back to Virginia to facilitate communication with, and protection from, the Native Americans, Tom is forced to make the agonising choice of whether to leave the world he knows and cross the ocean with her.

‘A World Away’ is based on the true story of the ‘Lost Colony’ of 1587, in which an entire settlement mysteriously vanished – either absorbed into local tribes, or else killed by them, or by the Spanish. It is known that before they disappeared, they suffered from lack of supplies, a harsh winter, internal dissent, and from previous poor relations with local tribes. All of these events are used to good effect in the book.

Francis neither shies from, nor is overly graphic in describing, sexual or violent incidents. The strength of the story lies in the parallel experiences of Nadie and Tom’s culture shock, how one copes with leaving home and family for the unknown, how one relates to the person for whom they have emigrated, and – in Nadie’s case – how one copes with returning home a changed person.

 For further information, there is an author’s note and a bibliography at the back of the book.

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2008-06-13