Paperbark Book Club: August Session with Stephanie Koens

Join Paperbark Merchants in-conversation with Stephanie Koens (in-person) to discuss her debut novel, Daughters of Batavia.

Two women. One shipwreck. And four centuries of secrets.

Shortly before Christmas in 2018, Tess McCarthy, after years as a hard-working English teacher who never did anything out of the ordinary, flies to Western Australia's remote Abrolhos Islands. She is in search of answers - both to the infamous Batavia shipwreck and her personal family crises.

Amsterdam, 1628. Saskia, an orphaned young Dutchwoman, boards Batavia with relatives, bound for a new and potentially dangerous life in the East Indies - only for her world to first collide with Aris Jansz, the ship's taciturn under surgeon.

Tess, Saskia and Aris - their lives linked by secrets that span generations - carry the baggage of past losses and the uncertainty of their futures. And, in the most unlikely circumstances, they may find qualities that echo through…