Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Stand by your beliefs – even if it means going to the end of the Earth.
Joseph Barnaby
What you need to know before your trail
By standing up for his principles, horse farrier Joseph Barnaby lost everything. Now, when a personal vendetta goes too deep to fight, he escapes to the Portuguese island of Madeira where he finds work on a small farm only accessible by boat.
The balmy climate and never-ending supply of exotic fruit, vegetables, and honey make it sound like paradise. But, for Joseph, it’s the ideal place to hide from the world.
Not everyone is prepared to give up on life’s misfortunes. The local fishing village has its own surprises and the inhabitants of Quinta da Esperança have more grit in them than the pebbled beach that borders the property.
Travel Guide
Madeira island
The novel takes place in a fictional fishing village and farm but the evocation of the landscape is very real. There is a glossary of Portuguese terms in the book to add flavour!
“Just look at that view, something no-one would ever get tired of seeing. The sun, now at the end of August, was a little lower, so its beams spangled the sapphire sun of the ocean with diamonds.”
The landscape is something else:
“How a tree, eking out an existence on this steep, barren , dry escarpment, could produce such wonderful fruit in such abundance was beyond her. But there were other shrubs, spiky and dry, that sent out the sweetest fragrance in the heat as if to say I might be ugly but I do have a beautiful inside. Anything can have a certain exterior it shows the world, but also have a beautiful interior only the few can appreciate.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Joseph Barnaby
Destination: Madeira Author/guide: Susan Roebuck Departure Time: 2000s
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