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Eleanor Limprecht

The Passengers Kindle Edition

by Eleanor Limprecht (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

19 ratings

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A stunning exploration of hope and desire, fear and control, this story is full of heart and heartbreak'
ASHLEY HAY, author of The Railwayman's Wife

'A compelling novel about the bruises inflicted by fate and by ourselves, and the blessings to be found in resilience, determination, and love.'
DEBRA ADELAIDE, author of The Household Guide to Dying

Sarah and Hannah are on a cruise from San Diego, California to Sydney, Australia. Sarah, Hannah's grandmother, is returning to the country of her birth, a place she hasn't seen since boarding the USS Mariposa in 1945. Then she, along with countless other war brides, sailed across the Pacific to join the American servicemen they'd married during World War II.

Now Hannah is the same age Sarah was when she made her first journey, and in hearing Sarah tell the story of her life, realises the immensity of what her grandmother gave up.

The Passengers is a luminous novel about love: the journeys we undertake, the sacrifices we make and the heartache we suffer for love It is about how we most long for what we have left behind. And it is about the past - how close it can still feel - even after long passages of time.

'Two women, two generations, two countries, two journeys. Eleanor Limprecht gracefully navigates the crosscurrents of history and creates vibrant characters from the extraordinary true experiences of Australian war brides. Sarah and Hannah's urgent search for love and wholeness moved me in both senses: they touched my heart and I still feel I am churning across the Pacific with them. A deeply satisfying novel.'
SUSAN WYNDHAM, former literary editor, The Sydney Morning Herald

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Allen & Unwin
Publication date

21 February 2018
File size

1167 KB
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Review

"A moving and vividly realised novel. Limprecht is a fine writer." Hannah Kent

"Deeply satisfying. Simply a wonderful book." Clare Wright

"It does what fiction does best, daring its reader to imagine what it is like to be someone society has long trained us to malign as the near-evil other." Melbourne Review

"One of the best debut novels I have read in a long time... What Was Left is a riveting novel that examines ideas of motherhood, identity and the lies people tell to protect each other.." Readings Monthly

"An exceptionally talented writer, Limprecht is one to watch." Books + Publishing

"Confronting and yet deeply human... a refreshingly honest and compelling portrait of motherhood, loss and abandonment." Monica Dux

"An original, compelling novel driven by the premise of a passionate, broken woman desperate to save herself. I could not put this novel down." Poppy Gee --This text refers to the mass_market edition.

About the Author

Eleanor was born and raised in the US, Germany and Pakistan but now lives in Sydney, Australia. Eleanor's previous novels, What Was Left and Long Bay were both published by Sleepers Publishing to critical acclaim. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B077M5G2NN
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen & Unwin (21 February 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1167 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 63,352 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 2,667 in Historical Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 5,970 in Historical Fiction (Books)
- 21,993 in Whispersync for Voice

Customer Reviews:
19 ratings

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Eleanor Limprecht

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Eleanor Limprecht is the author of three novels: The Passengers (Allen & Unwin, 2018), Long Bay (Sleepers Publishing, 2015) and What Was Left (Sleepers Publishing, 2013, shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal). Her fourth novel, The Coast, is due out in 2022. Her short fiction and essays have been published various places including Best Australian Stories, Sydney Noir, Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings and Choice Words.

Eleanor Limprecht
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Eleanor Limprecht
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1 offer from $11.99

Customer reviews

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4 star		37%
3 star		20%
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LS12

Loved this book.

Reviewed in Australia on 7 September 2019

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A great insight to the war years in Sydney and the Yanks in town..easy to see how you would fall in love not knowing what tomorrow would bring. Easy to understand how feelings change over years being separated and how diificult to start a new life in a foreign country with someone you really did not know.

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Susie Lawson

Facing the truth

Reviewed in Australia on 9 April 2019

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The ease in which the words spring from the page is what engaged me. The different generations and the way the author bounces easily back and forward in time and place makes the lives of Sarah and Hannah so appealing.

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Ilona

bride ships to Us

Reviewed in Australia on 6 August 2019

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I found it very interesting and easy to read. It did not know about the bride ships. In all a nice and interesting family saga

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MelB

Lovely heartfelt story

Reviewed in Australia on 31 July 2018

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I really enjoyed the history in this book. Had no idea what War Brides were before. Interesting characters and lovely use of flashback.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Guilt is depriving

Reviewed in Australia on 22 April 2018

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A recommended read. Great story of a grandma and granddaughter travelling and learning about their hidden guilt. Ends too quickly

One person found this helpful

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oz-bods

Touching novel of two generations of women. Vokingrovoking, keeps your interest until the end.

Reviewed in Australia on 18 December 2019

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Beautifully written, thoughtful and thought provoking. Keeps your interest till the very end.

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a wonderfully moving story that is also interesting and insightful

Reviewed in Australia on 5 April 2018

“I wore my canary yellow pencil skirt and jacket of light wool, with my best stockings and a pair of low-heeled black pumps. Folded on top of my suitcase in the rack above my seat was my cream belted coat, my matching hat and in the coat pocket a pair of black leather gloves. I wore my nicest things, for wherever I went I would be making an impression upon strangers, and I did not want them to guess what I knew about myself: that I was lost now. Far from safety, far from home.”

The Passengers is the third novel by critically acclaimed US-born author, Eleanor Limprecht. Hannah Fray is accompanying her grandmother, Sarah, on a cruise from San Diego to Sydney. Ostensibly this is to provide physical help for Sarah, elderly and thus frail, although Hannah’s strength is not a given. Sixty-eight years earlier, Sarah made the journey in reverse, travelling from Sydney as a war bride on the USS Mariposa to join her new husband, ex-US Army Officer Roy Jackson, now returned to the tobacco farm in Roanoke, Virginia.

As they enjoy the amenities the ship offers, Sarah candidly describes to Hannah not only her earlier trip, but also how she met and married Roy, and the family and homeland to which she has never returned. Hannah is captivated by Sarah’s stories, learning much she would never have guessed. “I wonder if hearing Grandma’s stories has something to do with this thrill I feel. I want to feel what she felt then. When life was simply lived, not dissected into a thousand pieces. When it was grabbed tight and squeezed because tomorrow it might not be there.”

But Hannah is also dealing with an ongoing problem of her own, something she has kept secret from her mother and grandmother. Although perhaps she hasn’t hidden it as well as she thought: “… I sensed it. It’s why I wanted you to come with me on this trip. I can see now how selfish I’ve been; I’ve probably made you worse off. But I wanted you close. I guess I hoped you’d want to talk about it, one day. I suppose it’s why I wanted to tell you about Roy. About the secrets I kept.”

Hannah has indeed been thinking about telling: “The thing about truth, though, is that if you decide to tell it you have to tell it all. You can’t hide some things and tell others. Because they’re all connected, the lies, like the scaffolding of a skyscraper. I imagine myself as a building inside, my structure rotten, the lies holding me up. I’m not strong enough without them. I’d certainly tumble to the ground.”

Limprecht’s third novel touches on a myriad of subjects including the demands of farming, and the pitfalls of important life decisions made under the desperate urgency of wartime deadlines. Survivor guilt, grief, adultery, xenophobia and anorexia nervosa also feature. Her plot is original and credible, and the depth of her research into Bride Ships is apparent on every page.

Her characters are easily believable, very human and sometimes prone to disappointing behaviour. She does allow them wise words: “Just because you mess up once doesn’t mean you can’t get it right.” And perceptive observations: “I think of Grandma last night, out beneath the stars, and how hard it is to align memory with past, how you imagine the world with how it has changed.”

The present-day narrative (Sarah and Hannah) alternates with one that begins in the mid-twentieth century on a dairy farm on the south coast of NSW. Also included are letters, pamphlets and newspaper articles. Limprecht gives the reader a wonderfully moving story that is also interesting and insightful, all wrapped in beautiful descriptive prose. Recommended.
Quotes from an Uncorrected Proof copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin.

3 people found this helpful

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Amra Pajalic

The burden of family secrets

Reviewed in Australia on 5 October 2018

Sarah was a war bride who travelled to America on a cruise ship to meet the husband she met and married during the second world war. Now she's returning to Australia on a cruise ship with her grand-daughter Hannah, and as they travel she tells her grand-daughter the story of her life. This is a story about family secrets and the toll they take. A story about learning from previous generations. And a great insight into history. I loved it.

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Brenda Telford

Compelling and enjoyable!

Reviewed in the United States on 14 February 2020

Verified Purchase

As Sarah and Hannah travelled on the cruise from San Diego to Sydney, Sarah, Hannah’s grandma told Hannah of the last time she was in Australia, the land of her birth, in 1945 and the journey beyond. Sarah had married Roy, a US serviceman she’d met in Sydney, the day before he left the shores for war. In the years after Roy left, Sarah and he had corresponded by mail only. The availability of the USS Mariposa to take Australian war brides to the United States and their husbands was an opportunity Sarah couldn’t miss. And as she left the dock in Sydney, she wondered if she’d ever see her Mum and Dad, or brothers Fred and Jack, again.

With Hannah learning all about her grandmother’s earlier life, she was intrigued by the courage and tenacity her grandma showed. The things Sarah went through over her lifetime seemed to highlight everything she gave up by leaving Australia. Hannah herself struggled with her health; had done for years. And Sarah could see it happening again…

The Passengers by Aussie author Eleanor Limprecht was an enjoyable look at the history of Australia’s war brides, the love and faith that saw them take incredible risks; the sacrifices that were made every day. I loved Sarah’s story – felt much more involved in that than Hannah’s story. Sarah’s story evolved; Hannah’s appeared to stagnate. A compelling historical novel, The Passengers is one I recommend.

Excellent storytelling, believable characters, and a moving and interesting story

Reviewed in the United States on 2 March 2018

Verified Purchase

Having read Eleanor Limprecht’s other novels, I was very pleased to hear she had released another and I was rewarded with a novel of excellent storytelling, rich language and interesting characters.

The story cleverly and easily interweaves the emotional, historically interesting and hopeful tale of an Australian grandmother who moved to the US after WWII as an Australian ‘war bride’, with that of her American granddaughter who equally has faced and continues to face challenges in her life choices. The characters are warm, believable and easy to relate to - I truly connected with the emotions they experience in their relationships and during life-changing events. I was drawn into their stories wanting to know more of the secrets they reveal as time passes. I found Hannah and her grandmother’s connection across the generations particularly heartwarming and well portrayed. As well, the language of the novel is effortlessly beautiful, bringing to life the landscapes, including many familiar to Australian and American readers. It was such a great read and I would have happily kept reading more about Hannah and what the future holds for her.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed The Passengers and I highly recommend it as a moving and captivating story.

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