October, 1830. An insouciant young shoemaker steps ashore into Van-Diemen’s Land, facing a life sentence of hard labour in a strange, bleak outpost of the British Empire.

Life is grim, and death lingers at every gibbet. But Tom will soon learn that freedom lives in the spirit, that love endures in memory, and that captivity can stifle neither.

Spanning more than half a century during the forging of Australia, Tom must defy the story written for him to build his own freedom, overcome unbearable losses, and learn that love can have many different faces.

Woven upon the loom of historical research, this tale of convict life is told from the margins, pulling together the threads of ordinary lives lived in extraordinary times.

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