THE WIVES OF HENRY OADES - Johanna Moran. Ballantine, $15 paper (384p)
ISBN 978-0-345-51095-2
Your very first review and it’s lovely, Johanna “a book group winner” — congratulations!!!!
Caitlin Alexander, Senior Editor, Random House
Moran, Johanna
THE WIVES OF HENRY OADES - Johanna Moran. Ballantine, $15 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-345-51095-2
"Equal parts love story and courtroom drama, The Wives of Henry Oades is a compelling story of good people caught in impossible circumstances."
-Meg Waite Clayton, best-selling author of The Wednesday Sisters
Book Launch - February 25, 2010
Click on picture to see video
Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Arts & Books editor, Susan Rife interviewed Johanna at University of South Florida's, Sarasota-Manatee campus,
Johanna's alma mater.
Books were sold by Circle Books and signed by Johanna.
An English accountant and his two wives are the subject of this intriguing and evocative debut novel based on a real-life 19th-century California bigamy case. A loving husband and attentive father, Henry Oades assures his wife, Margaret, that his posting to New Zealand will be temporary and the family makes the difficult journey. But during a Maori uprising, Margaret and her four children are kidnapped and the Oades' house is torched.
Convinced his family is dead, Henry relocates to California and marries Nancy, a sad 20-year-old pregnant widow. When Margaret and the children escape, eventually making their way to California and Henry's doorstep, he does the decent thing by being a husband to both wives and father to all their offspring, a situation deemed indecent by the Berkeley Daughters of Decency.
Moran presents Henry's story as if making a case in court, facts methodically revealed with just enough detail for the reader to form an independent opinion. But it's Margaret surviving the wilderness, Nancy overcoming grief and the two women bonding that give the book its heart and should make this a book group winner. Publishers Weekly
Celebrated book clubs and reading -
Selby Library Sarasota, FL
Book Store Author Events
SW Florida
Reading Festival
Johanna shares stage with
Sheramy Bundrick
Sunflowers author
Coral Gables, FL
Vero Beach, FL
Foreign Sales
The Wives of Henry Oades has been sold to HarperCollins in the UK and Der Club Bertelsmann in Germany.
News From The Other Side Of The Pond
Dear Johanna,
Good to see that you're getting such great reviews.I have a little news too -- Goldsboro Books would like to take 250 signed copies of the first edition
early next year as they would like to make the book their 'February Book of the Month'. They are small but very well run outfit and the UK's largest supplier of signed first editions.
It's a great sign that they like the book -- I think they have brillliant taste!
All best,
Essie Cousins, Editorial Director
HarperCollins
UK Cover
NEWS
"Good news to end and to start the year on! Target has selected The Wives of Henry Oades for their Breakout Books promotion
Caitlin Alexander, Senior Editor, Random House Media Group
EVENTS
Dear Johanna,
"I am delighted to say that a wonderful review came in today from Waterstones Books Quarterly – the magazine of the (only) highstreet bookseller over here and a very well-respected publication, giving advance heads-up about forthcoming titles."
The Wives of Henry Oades was singled out as one of "North America's finest debuts" of fiction: "Moran takes a true story and turns it into comic, captivating fiction."
77-85 Fulham Palace Road| Hammersmith | London W6 8JB
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
Johanna interviewed on regional National Public Radio, by WMFN's
Mary Glenney
Tampa, FL
Queensland, Australia Book review:Based on a true story, The Wives of Henry Oades is set in the late 19th Century. Henry Oades moved from London to Wellington in 1890 for a job and took his family with him. Alex Bernard shares some of the plot with Greg Cary in this unbelievable tale.
To listen, click 4BC
Tampa, FL
Reviews
Two women discover they’re both rightfully married to the same man.
Serious, sometimes horrific developments are lightened by touches of understated, salty wit in Moran's fact-based historical, a fresh and unusual story that moves from New Zealand to California in the 1890s.
... A beguiling, promising debut, combining clipped narration and capable technique with tender appreciation for the female characters in particular.
"A delicious and painful tale of marriage, suffering, tolerance and sacrifice--a historical saga seen through the lens of two wives, one husband, and the disapproving, cantankerous rabble at the end of Victorian America--a stellar debut novel."
-Jamie Ford, best-selling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Johanna interviewed on Australian Broadcasting Company, over 260 frequencies, the largest single network in the country. Click ABCRadio Australia below to listen.
Summer 2010 Indie Next List
For Reading Groups
3. The Wives of Henry Oades: A Novel by Johanna Moran
(Ballantine, $15, 9780345510952)
"Henry Oades' decision to move his family to New Zealand for a job proves crucial when his wife and children are kidnapped and presumed dead at the hands of native tribesmen. He moves to America and marries a young widow, only to find his first wife and children on his doorstep one day. They move in with his new family and Henry eventually face charges of bigamy. Based on a true story, this book goes right to the top of the list for book clubs." --Beth Carpenter, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
A BOOK LOVERS CONVENTION
April 7, 2012
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Selby Library
1331 First Street Sarasota, FL
Waterlefe Women's Literary Society
"Johanna Moran addressed a women's group and made sure her talk also benefited young readers. The event was a benefit for the Backpacks for Literacy Program at Freedom Elementary School. She donated her speaker's honorarium to the
