Wilhelmina by Daphne Saxby Taylor

In 1840s Baden, fifteen-year-old Wilhelmina Gerhardt possesses a rare gift. The Grand Duchess offers patronage. Chopin himself agrees to guide her toward the concert stage. Her future glitters with promise.

Then revolution threatens, and her father makes an impossible choice: flee to the raw colony of New South Wales or risk everything in the coming upheaval.

The sea voyage exacts a brutal toll. In the Hunter Valley wilderness, Wilhelmina must steady her frightened mother, nurse her ailing father, and carve a future from eucalyptus boards and sheer will. Friendship with the Montgomery family eases their start. Love for cedar-getter Billy Foster anchors her heart.

Yet every choice seems to push music further from her grasp.

Through floods and drought, through seasons of hardship and unexpected joy, Wilhelmina's melodies endure—played on a battered upright, scored by candlelight, treasured in secret. When her youngest daughter earns her own chance at the concert platform, past and present collide in a single breathtaking moment.

Some dreams, it seems, are not lost—only passed on.

Wilhelmina is a sweeping tale of migration, resilience, and a mother's legacy for readers who cherish family sagas set against Australia's colonial frontier.

Genre: Historical: Australian

ISBN: 978-1-920972-47-9

ASIN: B003Z4KBUW

Word count: 89, 019

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