Paradiso: A Novel - E-book - ePub

1879. Veneto, Italy. An unscrupulous French nobleman, the Marquis de Rays, is promoting a scheme to colonise New Guinea. He has numerous French investors but needs a workforce. He guarantees land, housing and the promise of untold wealth in his utopian colony of La Nouvelle France. Along with forty other Italian families Lorenzo Perin, his wife Caterina and their two children join the expedition. The Italian Government refuses to issue travel papers and the French Government refuses to allow the expedition to embark from any French port.
As a result, three hundred Italian peasants undertake an event-filled journey to Barcelona. For Domenico, aged eight, this is the adventure of a lifetime. He is the first in his family to attend school; he has a hunger for knowledge and is entranced by stories of the new world. His older sister, Marietta, is not so convinced. She is bound to her mother and a life of duty. Despite these limitations she secretly dreams of a life beyond the confines of family.
The one-hundred-day sea voyage to the New World is both exotic and tragic. Illness and death stalk them. Marietta finds herself taking on unfamiliar responsibilities including caring for her sick mother who carries a secret known only to her close companion Maria Tomé. On arrival at La Nouvelle France, the Italians find none of the fertile lands promised by the Marquis. They are confronted by impenetrable jungle, incessant rain and the ever-present threat of annihilation.
Their leaders abandon the fledgling colony and sail to Sydney promising to return with fresh supplies.1881. Two months later, dwindling supplies force the expeditioners to take control of their own destiny and they set sail for Sydney only to be diverted to the French penal colony of New Caledonia. From Noumea, the survivors petition the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Henry Parkes, for permission to settle in Australia.
He agrees. In Sydney they express the wish to fulfil their dream of establishing a utopian Italian commune but Parkes has otherideas. Lorenzo Perin and Maria Tomé, who have both lost their spouses in tragic circumstances, are faced with a decision which will impact their family for generations. A novel based on the true story of endurance, resilience and survival, which has surprising parallels with contemporary events in Australian history.