Wild geese - Lara Harte

Fanny Burney meets Maria Edgeworth in an atmospheric and enchanting novel, set on the eve of the French Revolution.

Isabella, a headstrong but intelligent Irish girl flees Dublin and an unwanted marriage to join her estranged father in Paris (where many ex-pat Irish have sheltered following penal restrictions in Ireland). Isabella is a classic innocent abroad - a pre-feminist heroine with a mind of her own. When she arrives in Paris she finds her father's beautiful and accomplished but penniless Irish cousins, mother and daughter, already in situ. Also in Paris is the handsome young Irish doctor with whom Isabella is in love and in whose way she was thrown during her flight from Dublin. The idealistic Isabella quickly discovers that there is more to her mysterious father than she thought. She also discovers, to her growing horror, the true origin of her family's recently-acquired fortune.

Love, social reform and slavery mingle in this dazzling and intelligent tour de force.