FICTION

Fled

by Meg Keneally
Arcade: Skyhorse. Jul. 2019. 400p. ISBN 9781948924269. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781948924283. F
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In 1783 England, Jenny Gwyn turns to thievery to support her impoverished family. Her arrest threatens the noose, so transportation to Australia seems a better fate. After a harrowing trip, she arrives with a bastard daughter; a marriage yields a son, but soon both are starving. Jenny and her family escape in a small boat with several other convicts, journeying north along the coast of Australia to the Dutch colony of Coepang in Timor. But they are outed as prisoners and deported to England for trial. Owing to the pettiness of her crime, Jenny’s sentence is commuted, but the return voyage results in the tragic deaths of her husband and children.
VERDICT Inspired by the life of Mary Bryant (1765–94), Keneally’s solo debut (after the “Monsarrat Trilogy,” coauthored with her father, Thomas Keneally) is not the first to fictionalize Bryant’s story. However, this novel’s strength is chronicling the horrors convicts experienced during transport, the desperate environment awaiting them in Australia, and the daring navigation of an unknown coastline.
Reviewed by Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH , Jul 25, 2019
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