Historical Fiction
Date Published: December 1, 2022
Publisher: Cumulus Publishing
In May 1939, when Professor Carl Mueller, his wife, Esther, and their three
children flee Nazi Germany, and find refuge on the paradise island of Cuba,
they are all full of hopes and dreams for a safe and happy future.
But those dreams are shattered when Carl and Esther are confronted by a
ghost from their past, and old betrayals return to haunt them.
The turbulent years of political corruption leading to Batista’s
dictatorship, forces the older children to take very different paths to
pursue their own dangerous dreams.
And – among the chaos and the conflict that finally leads to Castro’s
revolution and victory in 1959, an unlikely love begins to grow – a love
that threatens the whole family.
Having escaped a war-torn Europe, their Island of Dreams is to tear them
apart forever.
Excerpt
The deck was already full of passengers, mostly standing in silence. Like Anna, taking their last look at the island. She found a space at the rail facing the shore, as the rising sun turned the grand buildings of the Presidential Plaza to gold.
The ship was divided between wailing and deep silence. Somewhere Anna could hear a rhythmic chant –
‘We cannot sail. We must not die -’
Anna choked back tears. How she longed to set foot on the island. To walk under the palms, to be lost in the bustle, the sounds, the music of these vibrant people. She stood silently, the tears hot on her cheeks. She looked past the line of police boats to the shore and remembered her first sight of the island. It had looked so welcoming, so free. She could make out the line of tall palm trees beyond the harbour, their long fronds waving in the gentle breeze. She had never stood beneath a palm tree. Were there coconuts clustered at the top? She’d never know, now.
‘We cannot sail. We must not die -’ continued the chant.
But they were to sail. Were they also to die?
The ship’s klaxon startled them all. A long, mournful moan. A deeper silence followed the deafening noise. Then the panic and the prayers rose again, louder, from deep inside the ship. Suddenly, the note of the engines changed, higher, louder, more insistent. Anna knew it couldn’t be long now.
About the Author
I am an award-winning British screenwriter, who was on the first writing
team of the BBC’s EASTENDERS, and won the Writers’ Guild Award
for Best TV serial for CORONATION STREET. I was Head of Development at Cloud
9 Screen Entertainment Group, producing seven major television series,
including ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ starring Richard ‘John
Boy’ Thomas, and ‘Twist in the Tale’, featuring William
Shatner. I was co-creator of the UK Channel Five teen-cult drama series
‘THE TRIBE’, which ran for five series.
I have written three novels, CHICAGO MAY, BIRTH OF THE MALL RATS [an intro
to the TV series THE TRIBE], and ISLAND OF DREAMS which will be published in
December 2022.
CHICAGO MAY is the first book of a two-part series.
www.harryduffin.co.uk
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