1836: Year of Escape

If you liked Patrick O'Brian's epic Aubrey/Maturin series, Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, or Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, you'll love 1836. Europe, beautiful and cultured, is roiling in post-Napoleonic chaos... ...the only way out is to cross a dangerous ocean. Can this desperate family reach the shores of America? In 1836, Europe is still haunted by the Napoleonic Wars, and battle-weary veterans get the worst of it. Reactionary rulers everywhere try to snuff out the very idea of freedom...and those who treasure it. One man, Niklas Kästner, knows they must go. But he and his mercurial Katrina must somehow make the journey safe for all of the family, including the children. To reach the sea. To find a ship. To survive the voyage. This is the story of the author's immigrant ancestors, like those of millions of Americans, and the chances they took, the lives at stake. Read it now. "1836: Year of Escape pulls off a literary magic trick, weaving the sweeping movements of history around the gripping account of a single family's desperate emigration to America." -Pete Beatty, author of Cuyahoga "The tightly packed narrative unfolds like leaves on a family tree... The author creates a world that feels as if the reader walks as a witness to a real family's journey." -Nancy E. Turner, NYT Bestselling Author, These Is My Words "Engrossing story, glowing prose, stunning imagery." -Steve Vogel, NYT Bestselling Author, Reasonable Doubt