Showing results by author "Sarah Lark" in All Categories

It’s 1880 in the North Island town of Otaki, where Aroha lives contentedly with her mother, Linda - until a fateful tragedy leaves Aroha traumatized and plagued by a cursed guilt. For the long recovery ahead, Aroha is sent to Rata Station, a thriving sheep farm that Aroha’s mother and grandmother once called home. Linda knows it’s the perfect place for her daughter to heal, find hope, and start a life she can call her own.

It’s 1837, and immigrating to a small New Zealand fishing village is an opportunity for Ida Lange’s family to build a better future. Yet for Ida, raised in a strict, religious, tight-knit German community, so much is still forbidden to a woman. Yearning for the poor day laborer she shared books with as a child, Ida is now trapped in a dire marriage to a man of her father’s choosing.

It’s 1863, nearly twenty years since Ida Lange came to New Zealand to change her life and realize a dream. With her best friend, Cat, she established a thriving sheep farm on the continental plains where their combined families settled - and succeeded. But the idyll of Rata Station could be reaching an end. The fires of change are coming again, and this time it’s Ida’s and Cat’s daughters - Mara, Carol, and Linda - who will get swept up in the ensuing chaos.

Hardworking London governess Helen Davenport longs for a family of her own but knows the prospect of finding a suitable husband grows dimmer each year. Then she spots an advertisement seeking wives for the churchgoing bachelors of colonial New Zealand and begins an affectionate correspondence with a gentleman farmer.Meanwhile, not far away in Wales, society life bores Gwyneira Silkham, beautiful, daring daughter of a wealthy sheep breeder.

In mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, charming Kathleen and dashing Michael harbor secrets and dreams. Imagining a life beyond the kitchen and fields of the wealthy family they both work for, they plot to leave their homeland, marry, and raise the child Kathleen is secretly carrying. The luck of the Irish, however, is not on their side. Soon, they find themselves swept up in circumstances they never could have fathomed. Kathleen is forced to marry against her will and immigrate to New Zealand.

The dawning twentieth century brings change to New Zealand - and new opportunities for any woman bold enough to grasp them. Atamarie Turei, whose mother fought for suffrage, has enrolled as the first female student at the Canterbury College of Engineering. On a surveying trip she meets Richard Pearse, who shares her passion for aviation. Being part Maori, part white, and thoroughly independent, Atamarie is soon vilified by Richard’s conservative farm community, forcing her to navigate the next step in a liberating life.

As the nineteenth century draws to a close, the struggle for women’s suffrage has finally reached New Zealand. But when the tide of change rolls in, it threatens to engulf two young women from very different backgrounds, who are coming of age amid the tumult.

The great-granddaughter of Gwyneira McKenzie - who arrived in New Zealand as a naïve young bride in In the Land of the Long White Cloud - Gloria Martyn has enjoyed an idyllic childhood at Kiward Station, her family’s sprawling sheep farm in the Canterbury Plains. When her parents send word from Europe that it’s time for Gloria to become a proper “lady” by attending boarding school half a world away in England, Gloria must leave everything and everyone she loves most in the world, including her steadfast protector Jack McKenzie.

Nueva Zelanda, 1893. Elaine es la atractiva nieta de Gwyneira, quien un día viajó desde el extremo opuesto del mundo para casarse con un desconocido. De su abuela ha heredado la melena pelirroja y el espíritu libre... hasta que William, un misterioso irlandés, irrumpe en su vida y ella cae rendida a sus encantos. Pero entonces, la llegada de su prima Kura, con su sensualidad maorí, cambia el destino de Elaine, y ambas tendrán que enfrentarse a sus propias decisiones y a los vaivenes de una tierra comparada con el paraíso.

New Zealand, 1893: William Martyn is better educated and more cultivated than the other men breaking their backs searching for gold near Queenstown. William is the son of landed Irish nobility, and he comes to town ready to invest in the best equipment. On his search for supplies, he encounters spirited and beautiful young Elaine O’Keefe, who promptly falls in love with him.

Una inolvidable saga familiar en el exótico marco de Nueva Zelanda. Londres, 1852: dos chicas emprenden la travesía en barco hacia Nueva Zelanda. Para ellas significa el comienzo de una nueva vida como futuras esposas de unos hombres a quienes no conocen. Gwyneira, de origen noble, está prometida al hijo de un magnate de la lana, mientras que Helen, institutriz de profesión, ha respondido a la solicitud de matrimonio de un granjero. Ambas deberán seguir su destino en una tierra a la que se compara con el paraíso. Pero ¿hallarán el amor y la felicidad en Nueva Zelanda?

Nueva Zelanda, 1907. La infancia de Gloria, bisnieta de Gwyneira, termina abruptamente cuando es enviada junto a su prima Lilian a un colegia en Gran Bretaña. Una vez allí, Lilian encaja en las costumbres que impone en Viejo Mundo, pero Gloria quiere volver a toda costa a la tierra que la vio nacer, en el extremo opuesto del mundo. Y es ese profundo sentimiento el que la empuja a coger las riendas de su vida e idear un atrevido plan que marcará su destino para siempre.

Ahora, además de las habituales sagas familiares ambientadas en un país exótico, Lark nos habla de las pioneras de las conquistas sociales femeninas: primero el sufragio, después el acceso a la universidad y, por último, la posibilidad de volar, volar, volar.

London, 1732: Nora Reed, the daughter of a merchant, falls hopelessly in love with her father's clerk, Simon. Despite their differing social class, the star-crossed lovers dream of a future on a tropical island - until tragedy strikes, and Nora must face a life without her soulmate. Hopeless, Nora enters a marriage of convenience with Elias Fortnam, a widower and sugar planter in Jamaica. Even without Simon, she is determined to somehow fulfill their tropical fantasy.

Ailis et Donna pleurent toujours la disparition de leur cousine Katrina, mais elles n'ont pas oublié leur promesse de parcourir le monde, bien loin des conventions imposées par leur famille et leur rang. Ailis, qui vient d'accepter un poste à l'observatoire de Johannesburg, va enfin réaliser son rêve d'explorer le ciel. De son côté, Donna, passionnée par le vol en ballon, construit des montgolfières et des dirigeables avec son mari. Lorsque la Première Guerre mondiale éclate, elle rejoint l'escadrille Lafayette en France en tant que mécanicienne et instructrice de vol.

Écosse, 1873. Ailis, Donna et Katrina, issues de la prestigieuse lignée des Hard, grandissent au sein de l’aristocratie écossaise. La tête dans les étoiles, les trois cousines s’imaginent parcourir le monde, bien loin des conventions imposées par leur famille et leur rang. Tandis qu’Ailis veut explorer le ciel, Donna rêve de voler en montgolfière et Katrina, elle, espère devenir actrice de théâtre. Le jour où elles sont admises à l’école St Leonards, le premier lycée écossais pour filles, leurs rêves semblent enfin à portée de main.

In the chaos of World War II, Polish teenagers Helena and Luzyna Grabowski have lost everything. Without parents or a home, they are shipped to a refugee camp in Persia, where the days ahead hold only darkness. When they hear that orphans are being selected for relocation to New Zealand, Helena is filled with hope - until the officials say they have a place only for her younger sister. On the morning she is to be transported, Luzyna fails to join the chosen group, and Helena takes her place.

"La légende veut que les premiers Maoris arrivèrent en pirogue depuis la Polynésie. La première image qu'ils eurent de la Nouvelle-Zélande fut cette île enveloppée d'un long nuage blanc. D'où le nom qu'ils lui donnèrent." Londres, 1852. Helen, préceptrice de deux enfants dans une riche famille, répond à une annonce qui propose à des jeunes femmes de partir épouser des Britanniques installés en Nouvelle-Zélande.

Corre el año 1912 y, para poder trabajar como veterinaria, Nellie se casa con su amigo Phipps, quien va a heredar la consulta de su padre. Aunque no está enamorada de él, los une desde la infancia una estrecha amistad y Nellie le promete liberarlo del matrimonio en cuanto surja la oportunidad de que él haga realidad su verdadera vocación de músico. La ocasión se presenta al finalizar la Primera Guerra Mundial y Phipps desaparece de repente de la vida de Nellie.

Köln, Gegenwart: "Wie soll mein Leben weitergehen?", fragt sich Laura. Jetzt, da ihre beiden Kinder zunehmend selbstständig werden und sich ihr Mann immer weiter von ihr entfernt, denkt Laura an ihren einstigen Traum zurück, Meeresbiologin zu werden. Als sich die Chance bietet, für einige Zeit im Bereich der Wal- und Delfinbeobachtung in Neuseeland zu arbeiten, ergreift sie diese mit gemischten Gefühlen.