博客來THE NEEDLE WOMAN
ANN FOSS - A CONVICT’S LIFE
She stitched a life together from scraps of hope. But when the thread ran out, she had to forge a new destiny with ＂The Hangman’s Wages.＂
London, 1804. The sentence is death.
Standing in the dock of the Old Bailey, Ann Gilbert hears the words that should end her life. She has remained silent to protect the man she loves, accepting the noose as the price of his safety.
But Ann Foss refuses to die.At the eleventh hour, the gallows are traded for a slow exile to the savage shores of New South Wales. In Sydney, she refuses to be crushed by the convict stain. She reinvents herself as a businesswoman, building a sanctuary for her daughter from steam, soap, and determination.
But the husband she saved, Henry Foss, is swallowed by the penal system, lost to the brutal lime pits of Newcastle.
Believing the past is buried, Ann dares to find sanctuary in the arms of a protector. She builds a new life, a new home, and a new hope.
But the grave is empty...Just as Ann finds peace, a shadow emerges from the iron gangs-broken by chains, twisted by grief, and wielding the law like a weapon. The love that once defied a death sentence has curdled into a cold rage that threatens to destroy everything she has built.
A gripping work of historical fiction based on the heartbreaking true story of the author’s ancestors, The Needle Woman is a tale of survival, the crushing weight of the law, and a legacy built on the ultimate insult: a bequest of one single shilling.
