Kindle Edition Amazon K.M. del Mara Category:  Historical Fiction Publisher: K.M. del Mara ISBN-10:  0988396750 Type: Fiction Pages: 352 Copyright: August 2015 ISBN-13: 9780988396753 Price: $2.99 (eBook) What if an Irishman and an Italian, each escaping religious persecution, land on the coast of Cornwall? They are followed by two people fleeing the French Revolution, then a bi-racial orphan and next, a murderer. What happens when they all seek to build new lives in one hard-pressed fishing village? All over Europe in the late 18th century, people are trying desperately to escape revolutions and religious persecution. But where can they go to build new lives? Santino, a young Italian cooper, follows cousins to Cornwall. Patrick is lured there from Dublin by Zephaniah Cobbs, a man who, it seems, has many secrets. One not-so-well-kept secret is that Cobbs offers his services to French aristocrats fleeing the Revolution. Paying him an enormous sum of money, Bianca and Sébastien, her young charge, fall prey to his warped brand of evil and become virtual slaves. And then a motherless child arrives in Cornwall when a clerical error at an orphanage lands her, a bi-racial baby girl, in the arms of a single man who sent for an apprentice but ends up with a daughter. Arriving one by one in a tiny, hard-pressed Cornish village, none of these newcomers find much of a welcome. Must the villagers greet them with open arms when jobs are so hard to come by, when fishermen's nets are coming up empty and more mine workers are laid off every day? Time must be relied on to bridge some of the gaps. But the work of acceptance, it turns out, rests not only with the Cornish villagers. Excerpt We wrestle constantly with the problem of which bridges to burn and which bridges to cross. Where do we find the conviction to make a choice? “Measureless oceans of space”, spanned by a bridge -- should we cross or not? We make a decision with a flutter of fear, and that bridge falls behind, forever behind us. Try as we might, we can never circle back there again. Not to that same bridge, over that same space. Caroline Sydney burned a bridge when she decided that she and her daughter must part. Emilia was four days old. This separation broke open an abyss that could never be bridged. The mother struggled with it. The daughter struggled with it. It was a ghost that walked beside them all their days, a persistent wondering about the other. How could such an emptiness weigh so heavily? By a wonderful coincidence, they did finally come together, but their meeting was cruelly interrupted. Death issued that decree. Their time together had to be short. So short that months passed before Emilia even realized it had happened, though we must hope that Caroline knew before she closed her eyes for the last time. When Caroline Sydney died, the people at her bedside did not even know her name. But her death was not entirely unmarked by an impassive universe. If nothing else, her passing left a gap. Where Caroline had been, now there was a void, and that void needed to be filled. Because the universe does not allow emptiness. Whatever is available, whether anticipated or unexpected, desired or undesirable, whatever is at hand, that is what comes flooding in. When that happens, something begins. Maybe no one notices at first. The pendulum of Time, like a spider’s bound prey, swings back and forth above the void. But far, far down in that dark emptiness, something new begins to grow.

Delmara sets us securely in time and place to experience the struggles that best strangers in a strange land
Set in early 19th century Cornwall, Passage Oak is a tale that encompasses the lives of a generation of immigrants in search of homeland. To some characters that need is expressed in newfound home, family and community, while others are driven to ultimate wealth and power. With a profound sense of history and geography, Delmara sets us securely in time and place to experience the struggles that beset strangers in a strange land. The mystery lies at the intersection of those lives where the drive for survival takes on epic proportions. With a tempo that accelerates to the finale, Delmara keeps the reader's head spinning in ironic twists of fate and the chaos of lives bent on establishing a place in the world. And, at a more intimate level, in a mystery beyond the mystery, a young girl uncovers the truth she was seeking from the very beginning. An Epic Tale for all time, and a great book to come home to!

A beautifully written story that takes place in Cornwall
A beautifully written story that takes place in Cornwall in the early 1800's. Del Mara brings her wonderfully developed characters to life, thoroughly researching the time period and geography and sharing their riveting stories with us.The plot has many twists and turns to ensure that the reader will want to see what the next page brings. It will be very difficult to put this book down until you have heard her last word.

5.0 out of 5 starsI loved it and couldn't put it down
The Passage Oak was so entertaining! I loved it and couldn't put it down!