Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant

Description

It's 1866 and the three-masted sailing ship General Grant is on the southern route from Melbourne to London, with gold from the diggings secreted in returning miners' hems and pockets. In the fog and the dark, the ship strikes the cliffs of the Auckland Islands, is sucked into a cave and wrecked. Only fourteen men make it ashore and one woman - Mrs Jewell. Stuck on a freezing and exposed island, the castaways have to work together to stay alive, but they're a disparate group with their own secrets to keep and their only officer is disabled by grief after losing his wife in the wreck. A woman is a burden they don't need. Meanwhile stories about the gold grow with the telling: who has it, where is it and how much went down with the ship. Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant is a vivid imagining of the story behind the enduring mystery of one of New Zealand's early shipwrecks.

Cristina Sanders grew up in the family's Gateway Bookshop in Wellington and worked for some years in book marketing and publishing in New Zealand and London. She writes historical fiction for adults and young adults. Jerningham and Displaced were both shortlisted for the NZSA Heritage Literary Awards, and Displaced won the 2020 Storylines Tessa Duder Award. Cristina lives in Hawke's Bay with her family, where she runs on the hills and, whenever she can, sails away on tall ships.

Praise for Jerningham: "A spectacular debut that brings us an immersive, intelligent and well researched insight into the early days of New Zealand's European settlement." - Mandy Hager; "An accomplished, vibrant and historically grounded novel which deserves a big readership." - Lydia Wevers