Emigree by Jane Ireland is Book 1 in The Crying Tree series. Emigree is a story of love, loss, family, abuse and secrets, set over a 20-year period, from the late 1940s to the late 1960s.
This is about two women from very different cultures whose lives intersect.
Grace Love meets Charlie Alton, a sheep farmer in her hometown of Brisbane. They fall in love and Grace happily travels to rural New South Wales to marry and work alongside Charlie on the family property.
Grace embraces farm life, learning to shear the sheep and the running of the farm. Grace and Charlie are blessed with a family.
Grace has a mysterious ability to glimpse events past or in the future. She is unsure how to use this gift.
Isabella and her parents have come to Australia from Europe after World War II. They are looking for a new start and a better life.
Isabella’s dreams are shattered. But, fate brings her to Grace and Charlie’s property where they employ her and give her a place to live.
After a devastating loss, the two women share their stories. Cleverly tying the characters and the story together.
There is such a lot in this book. Issues of the injustice of the times are cleverly tackled. Life after World War II, immigration to Australia, the racial abuse migrants suffer, the treatment of Aboriginal people, farm life, drought and floods.
It is a compelling read. There are wonderful moments and also moments of heartbreaking loss.
I look forward to reading the continuing story of the Alton family in Book 2.
Thank you to Shawline Publishing Group and Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to read this excellent story.
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club members are reading Emigree by Jane Ireland. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
I love to read, any book on any topic. I now love ebooks as they are easier to store, I was running out of bookshelves! My other interests are family, gardening and our beautiful King Charles spaniel dog who is my reading companion.
Emigree by Jane Ireland (Shawline Publishing Group) is the first of two books in the Crying Tree series. It is an unusual book and hard to categorize – fantasy? family drama? a bit of both and a tale of love and endurance as well.
Two women’s life stories – Grace and Izabella, are initially told in parallel, and at first it is hard to keep track, as the narrative jumps from one to the other. Then, further into the book, each woman’s story is told in such a colourful, and beautifully evocative way, that making the transition from one woman’s story to the other is quite emotionally wrenching – you become so deeply immersed in one woman’s story, it is almost jarring to be suddenly thrust into the other woman’s equally compelling story. The two stories initially seem quite distinct and unconnected but when the two do finally come together, experiences, perspectives and intuitions start to make sense and slot into place.
Grace and Izabella are both incredibly strong characters and the heartaches they each face are more than many could endure. They come from very different backgrounds and both women are sorely tested, yet Grace and Izabella are united in their determination to endure what life throws at them and to survive for their families.
This is a thoroughly engrossing book, with beautiful descriptions and strong characterisation. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to reading the second and final book in the series.
Huge thanks for this, Lyn. I wanted to stress the universality of themes such as love, loss, power and redemption.
Thank you for allowing me to read this book.
I must admit I found it hard to get into and a bit confusing. I thought at first that the two women were reincarnation of each other.
Once I got into it, I found it a lot clearer and was able to enjoy it more.
It was amazing to read of their similar but different lives.
Wow such a delightful read. I am always hooked when there are glimpses of the supernatural, so I found this book full of interest. Powerful themes include love, heartbreak and transformation all beautifully crafted to create an intriguing story with well-developed and strong characters. I also love the name of the series “the Crying Tree ” and will definitely be looking forward to reading the next book.
Emigree follows two women, Grace and Izzie, with Grace being the more predominate character. Both have a similar event happen during their lives and they become intertwined accidentally.
This story was described as being supernatural so was not sure what to expect, but it was written so lightly and being based in the outskirts of Brisbane it hardly felt like it, more being guided by whispers of the unknown. As it is the first in a series of 2 books, I will gladly read the second to see where this goes.
Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to go because I don’t read supernatural books but I was amazingly surprised.
I really enjoyed reading about the characters because it was like they were so real.
I loved that the novel was based somewhere in the country which allowed me to picture what was actually happening.
Because the characters were going through similar things at the same time and it was jumping from one character to the next I was a bit confused at the start.
Emigree took me a while to read as it was more pick up/put down novel. It was worth reading though and proved to be a thoughtful story!
Capturing subjects as such and turning them into real life situations makes you also rethink and enjoy the characters more. My overthinking set up for some confusion however I eventually enjoyed the story.
Grace felt things deeply, feeling connected to things she cannot explain, but she kept this to herself, it would be thought of as odd in this time. The war going on around the world was hard, times were hard. Grace was lucky, she found Charlie and was able to make a life, a family for herself in outback Australia. They farm the land, raising sheep and are blessed by their children.
Izabella had travelled to Australia with her family as refugees. Her mother and her left in the back of nowhere while her father, a hard man, went to work and provide for them. It was not an easy life, but she found peace in the area around them. It is here she was seduced by a man, he took from her and left her pregnant, with dishonour to her and her family. Sent away to have her baby and to give it up, but Izabella was not having this, she found a way, but lost her child anyway.
Follow these two brave women, see their lives cross and share in each others hardships and loss.
This was a difficult book for me to get into, finding it hard to bring it together at the start. I persisted and was rewarded with the story pulling together and enticing me to read on. Thanks to Jane Ireland and Beauty and Lace for the chance to read.
A story of immigration from war torn Budapest to Australia, exploration of emotions towards bereavement. A beautiful dual narrative. The first in the crying tree series by Lisa Ireland.
Thankyou to The Beauty and Lace Club and Shawline Publishing Group Australia for the opportunity to read and review Emigree