Strangerland

In 1834, when Isabella Campbell was twenty-four, she left England for India, where she met the man that would become her husband: Charles Gascoyne. Life settled into a routine, but there was upheaval ahead, on a scale no-one could have expected: after twenty-six years in India, Charles decided the family would leave for New Zealand; Isabella, who was unwell, would return to England, and rejoin her husband and children later. In fact, it would be over a year before Isabella was reunited with her family -- or not, as it turned out. Arriving in New Zealand, Isabella discovered the children's governess had become her husband's lover; Charles blamed Isabella for the failure of their marriage -- a marriage she had not even realized was under threat. It was not just Isabella who found herself in crisis, however: the country itself was in turmoil, as British settlers warred with native Maoris. For Isabella, events came to a head -- and the public became personal -- when some of her own relatives were slaughtered.