The Way to Paradise (2012) is set in France in the 1840s and Tahiti in the 1890s. The novel begins in 1844 with Florita Tristan, aged 41, in France, with a vision of changing the world. She had travelled from France to Peru to collect her inheritance after her wealthy Peruvian father died. Now she was back in France, about to take a year-long journey throughout the countryside to campaign for better conditions for the poor. She has copies of the book ‘The Workers’ Union’ with her. Was she crazy, a subversive, an anarchist, a revolutionary? Why would anyone give a part of their salary to be a member of a union? Was she after fame of some sort? No, she wasn’t seeking fame; she was after effectiveness. What she did, she did for others. She dies young, aged 41. Almost fifty years later, in 1891, Florita’s grandson Paul Tristan, aged 43, is in the French colonial island of Tahiti to imitate the life of Paul Gauguin – he wants to be an artist and to paint his ma...
REJECT GREED; TREAD LIGHTLY; CARE LOCALLY; RESPECT DIVERSITY ... by Martina Nicolls