In Search of Anna

Book excerpt: She is the one I really want; that wandering spirit, the woman who gave birth to my grandfather and could not let him go, even when he had separated himself from her, from the land of his birth, and from all that he had known. It's a long way from a small southern German village to a farm in New South Wales, but in 1889 Anna Werner sets off alone on a foolish mission, to search for her son who has disappeared in Australia. From Hamburg to the exuberance of the 'Marvellous Melbourne' of the 1800s and the immigrant life of the Riverina German farming community of Jindera, Anna discovers as much about herself as she does about the thriving country she encounters. In Search of Anna is based on the true story of one woman's long and perilous journey from the small German village of Lewin, to the farms of Jindera in Australia. It has been extensively researched and is full of vivid detail about life in Germany and Australia during the 1800s. It is a sensitive exploration of the relationship between mothers and sons, and tells of a woman's search for herself.