A BELOVED TALE REIMAGINED
The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Margot Livesey’s ingenious retelling of Jane Eyre, will delight fans of Charlotte Brontë’s novel as well as readers unacquainted with the classic. Set in the 1960s, Livesey’s updated take on the tale chronicles the life of young Gemma Hardy, who is orphaned when her father—a widower—drowns. Gemma goes to live with her uncle in Scotland, but when he dies, she’s overseen by a mean-spirited aunt. As an escape of sorts, she enrolls in Claypoole, a fancy private school, but there her misfortunes continue, as she’s forced to work as a servant. Gemma’s next move is to Blackbird Hall, where the lord of the manor, Hugh Sinclair, engages her as a nanny for his niece. Gemma and Hugh feel a mutual attraction, but he has secrets that could keep them apart. Livesey has written a wonderfully engaging novel with the tried-and-true elements of romance and adventure—as well as a few surprises.

MEMORIES OF AFRICA
In her fascinating memoir, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Alexandra Fuller offers another intriguing account of life in Africa. Although she was brought up in Kenya, Nicola, the author’s mother, comes from a family of feisty Scottish highlanders. Passionate and brave, she marries Tim Fuller and explores Africa with him in search of a place where they can put down roots. Fuller’s adventure-filled account of her parents’ early years makes for great reading. Nicola and Tim are an unforgettable pair, at once larger than life and down to earth. They eventually settle in the Zambezi Valley, operate a banana and fish farm and discover lasting contentment. As usual, Fuller—an expert memoirist (Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight)—writes with assurance and flair. This singular chapter in her family history brims with the sights, sounds and smells of Africa, bringing the continent to life even as it revives poignant memories from her family’s past.

TOP PICK IN BOOK CLUBS
Erin Morgenstern’s captivating debut, The Night Circus, focuses on a mysterious troupe, Le Cirque de Rêves, or the Circus of Dreams, and its two stars, a pair of young magicians named Celia and Marco. Raised as rivals, Celia and Marco were coached from childhood to perform in the circus. They’re now engaged in a battle of powers that’s destined to end dangerously. Their contest takes place each night under Le Cirque’s black-and-white tent, where the two find themselves falling in love—a development that could have fateful repercussions for the circus itself. Set in London in the 1800s and filled with an unforgettable cast of wizards and performers, including Celia’s father, Prospero the Enchanter, Morgenstern’s tale is a real dazzler. Her spellbinding novel works its magic through a blend of genres, combining elements of romance, mystery and good old-fashioned fantasy.

Loosely based on Charlotte Brontv´'s beloved classic Jane Eyre, the newest gem from acclaimed novelist Margot Livesey follows the trials of a determined young orphan as she searches to find her place in the world.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy is every bit as enchanting as Livesey's previous novels, including the 2009 award winner The House on Fortune Street. Still, one has to wonder why any author—let alone one as critically and commercially successful in her own right as Livesey—would choose to re-imagine Brontv´'s archetypal character in a 20th-century setting.

"I hope the novel is sufficiently richly imagined that it's its own thing."

"I've asked myself that question 417 times while I've been working on this book," Livesey replies with laughter during an interview from her home near Boston, where she teaches writing at Emerson College. Funny and frank, with a lilting Scottish accent, Livesey admits to some nervousness about how her new novel will be received.

"I hope entering into the book or enjoying it does not depend on having read Jane Eyre or knowing Jane Eyre," she says. "I hope the novel is sufficiently richly imagined that it's its own thing. I didn't want to write a novel that excluded any readers or made anyone feel they had to be brainy in a sort of annoying way."

Born in 1948, Gemma Hardy is orphaned as a toddler after her mother dies in a freak accident and her father drowns. She is taken in by her uncle, a kind and well-educated minister, and his family in Scotland. After her uncle dies, Gemma is left alone with her indifferent cousins and cruel aunt, who resents the time her husband dedicated to his orphaned niece. When Gemma suffers a panic attack while locked in a closet as punishment for fighting with her cousin, a local doctor takes notice of her abusive situation.

At the age of nine, Gemma is shipped off to a faltering boarding school, Claypoole, where she'll earn her way by cooking and cleaning. Plain but smart, she is self-reliant and confident she'll make her way in the world (much like a certain Brontv´ heroine).

"Well, Gemma, we've reached the parting of the ways," her aunt tells her as she drops her at the train station to travel alone to Claypoole. "You're an ugly child—my poor sister-in-law was a plain Jane—but I hope you'll study hard at Claypoole and be a credit to me."

"I'll always try to be a credit to my uncle," Gemma retorts, "but you've treated me like a leper. If I win every prize in the school it won't be because of you."

Gemma struggles through her years as a "working girl" at Claypoole, dodging school bullies and trying to get a decent education in between mopping floors and serving meals to the paying students. When the struggling school finally closes, she takes a job as a nanny in the Orkneys, a cluster of islands in northern Scotland. It is there that Gemma's life begins in earnest. She is drawn to the wealthy owner of the home in which she lives, but slips away to Iceland to search for her roots.

Certainly the pristine writing evokes the moody, misty feel of Brontv´, and the plotlines are undeniably similar. But Livesey needn't worry about how her tale compares to Jane Eyre. In The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Livesey has created a character fully her own; her novel is more of an homage than a faithful retelling.

"I really felt more like writing back to Charlotte Brontv´," Livesey says.

Her inspiration for the book came, oddly enough, during an appearance at a book club, during which the group began talking about Jane Eyre. "Some of the best discussions and most illuminating moments I've had have been at book clubs," she says. She decided to write a modern version of the book—or, at least, modern compared with the original Victorian setting.

"If she came of age when the Pill was available and women's rights were a topic of discussion, it would really change the novel and what I was trying to do," she explains of her decision to set Gemma Hardy in the early 1960s. Livesey aimed to write a story about a girl determined to find a place in a world with few choices for a female of her status.

Once she began writing, Livesey had no difficulty imagining a crumbling Scottish boarding school. As a girl, she herself was enrolled in one as a day student. Her father taught at the neighboring boys' school and her mother was the school nurse. 

"I ended up in a class with girls three years older than me. It was just an enormous gulf," the author recalls. "There were long, dark corridors, cloakrooms and stairwells. I was always hiding in some stairway trying to avoid some particularly hefty girl."

The school eventually went bankrupt. "It was one time I felt my prayers were answered," she says, laughing at the memory. 

After graduating from the University of York, Livesey moved to Canada in the 1970s to be nearer to a love interest, and took a series of odd jobs. 

"I discovered this amazing thing called creative writing and even more amazing was that I was qualified to teach it," she says. "That changed my life in a more radical way than romance. It tied me to North America more than, say, waitressing or working at a dry cleaners."

The places at which she's since taught reads like a high school counselor's dream list: Boston University, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon, Tufts University and Williams College. Yet she's still found time to write a handful of compelling novels that have earned her a loyal following and the 2009 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award.

"I write novels that have what I so admired growing up: a strong plot and vivid characters and an exploration of moral questions, although that sounds incredibly pompous and dreary," Livesey says. "Maybe there's a way to better say it that is fun." 

She plans to celebrate finishing Gemma Hardy by traveling to the Brontv´ family home in England, which, ironically, she never visited while studying at the University of York. 

"I'm ashamed to say as an under-grad I was too absorbed in the emergency of self," she says wryly. "I didn't have time for a literary pilgrimage!"

The Flight of Gemma Hardy is the beautifully melancholic and wholly transporting story of one courageous girl searching for her place in a changing world. And now that it's finished, Livesey may even re-read the novel that inspired it.

"I never read Jane Eyre once I started my book," she admits. "I thought, if I do, I'll just throw down my pen."

Any novelist attempting to reconstruct a classic faces a monumental challenge, and basing a book on Jane Eyre is no exception. Livesey (The House on Fortune Street) rises to that challenge by creating an original tale set in mid-20th-century Scotland and Iceland that follows the life of Gemma Hardy, a determined orphan seeking answers to questions about her past. Like Jane, Gemma is both proud and principled, but there is a definite modern twist to her character. While romance plays a prominent role in this story, Livesey's tale centers largely on Gemma's internal journey and her physical trek. Within the classic framework, Livesey molds a thoroughly modern character who learns to expect the best of herself and to forgive the missteps of others. The author has a gift for creating atmosphere, most clearly demonstrated in her descriptions of the scenery during Gemma's travels. VERDICT This original slant on a classic story line captures the reader's interest and sustains it to the end. Fans of modern interpretations of the classics will particularly enjoy. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/11.]—Catherine Tingelstad, Pitt Community Coll., Greenville, NC

Attention, Jane Eyre fans. Here is a modern retelling with enough echoes to please you and enough variations to keep you guessing. In the early 1960s, the orphaned Gemma must leave Iceland to live with her uncle, whose death puts her at the mercy of her nasty aunt. After boarding school, she becomes tutor to a troubled child whose alluring guardian has a dark and dirty secret. Livesey's The House on Fortune Street got multiple best-book nods; get her new one for book clubs.

Inspired by Jane Eyre, Livesey (The House on Fortune Street) offers vibrant prose and a feisty heroine in her fascinating sixth novel, set in Scotland in the early 1960s. After 10-year-old Gemma Hardy's parents die, she is taken in by a kind uncle, much to his wife's dismay. When her uncle dies, the novel takes on shades of Cinderella as Gemma (who had been accepted by her cousins) is made into a scullery maid. Though her aunt attempts to break her down, Gemma works hard in school, earning a scholarship place at the Claypool boarding school. Again little more than a slave, Gemma learns how to survive among the working girls. When the school closes, Gemma takes a position in the Orkneys, where she will live at the estate of the mysterious Sinclair and look after his wild niece, Nell. She and Sinclair fall in love, but Sinclair has a secret that drives Gemma to change, as well as inspiring her to trace her Icelandic roots. Although guardian angels and kind strangers turn up like an army of deus ex machinas, these plot missteps don't detract from Gemma's self-possessed determination. Captivating and moving, this book is a wonderful addition to Livesey's body of work. (Jan.)