Title: Daughters of the Wreckage
Author: Stefanie Koens
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5
Shortly before Christmas in 2018, Tess McCarthy, after years as a hard-working English teacher who never did anything out of the ordinary, flies to Western Australia’s remote Abrolhos Islands. She is in search of answers–both to the infamous Batavia shipwreck and her personal family crises.
Amsterdam, 1628. Saskia, an orphaned young Dutchwoman, boards Batavia with relatives, bound for a new and potentially dangerous life in the East Indies–only for her world to first collide with Aris Jansz, the ship’s taciturn under surgeon.
Tess, Saskia, and Aris–their lives linked by secrets that span generations–carry the baggage of past losses and the uncertainty of their futures. And, in the most unlikely circumstances, they may find qualities that echo through faith, acceptance, and love.
I’d never heard of the Batavia shipwreck but the details of what happened to the survivors was truly terrible. I did enjoy that past timeline, despite the portrayal of life on board the ship being so unpleasant. I actually enjoyed Tess’s POV much more as she stepped outside her comfort zone in a big way and learned how to grow and to heal. This was a good historical fiction read about a historical incident most people know little to nothing about.
Stefanie Koens lives in Perth. Daughters of the Wreckage is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Thomas Nelson Fiction | Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.)
