A Great Act of Love

Australian author Rose follows up Bunny with the sumptuous story of an 18th-century Englishwoman who leaves behind her criminal past in search of a new life and winds up in Van Diemen’s Land (present-day Tasmania). Caroline Colbert was trained by her father to be an apothecary and by her glamorous aunt to be a thief. With her father in jail for murder and her aunt in police custody, Caroline assumes a new identity and travels first to New York City and then around the tip of South America, fending off the advances of a “reptilian” bird collector and adopting Quill, a cabin boy who was given to the captain to settle a debt. It’s 1836 when she and Quill arrive in Van Diemen’s Land, where she buys a cottage and finds work as a governess, all the while scheming to revive a former vineyard to produce champagne. The novel’s colorful supporting cast includes a father damaged by a head injury, the commandant of a prison colony, and a formerly enslaved man who helps Caroline with the vineyard. Though the narrative takes a few melodramatic turns and relies on some unlikely coincidences to reach its conclusion, for the most part it sustains a pleasing spirit of adventure. This is a treat for historical fiction fans. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Agency. (Feb.)