1836: Year of Escape

by Rose Osterman Kleidon

If you liked Patrick O’Brian’s epic Aubrey/Maturin series, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, or Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, you’ll love 1836.

Europe, beautiful and cultured, is roiling in post-Napoleonic chaos…

…the only way out is to cross a dangerous ocean.

Can this desperate family reach the shores of America?

In 1836, Europe is still haunted by the Napoleonic Wars, and battle-weary veterans get the worst of it. Reactionary rulers everywhere try to snuff out the very idea of freedom...and those who treasure it.

One man, Niklas Kästner, knows they must go. But he and his mercurial Katrina must somehow make the journey safe for all of the family, including the children. To reach the sea. To find a ship. To survive the voyage.

This is the story of the author’s immigrant ancestors, like those of millions of Americans, and the chances they took, the lives at stake.

Genres: Historical Fiction

306 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 16, 2022

About the author

Whenever I write – about families, sailing, farming, history, or the future – I strive for authenticity. Maybe authenticity’s easier over time, after years of teaching, research, and of living a life with connections to the past, whether it is baking bread or planting a garden or setting sail. As a child, our farm demanded work of the kind that’s been done for millennia. Being out in a field, dirty and tired, a long way from anything remotely modern, lets the past swoop in and take up residence.
Today, I am a professor emeritus at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, where I taught writing and wrote textbooks. My husband and I also ran our own marketing communications firm for decades. For thirty-eight years, we sailed the Great Lakes. He is Dennis Kleidon, author of Unleash Your Imagination: Transform Your Life. We now speak at writers' conferences, book clubs and other groups. You can subscribe to our newsletter, Unleash/Escape or learn more at http://www.rosekleidon.com and http://www.denniskleidon.com

Reviews

[Rose Kleidon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little background...1836: Year of Escape is HF based on the true story of my ancestors’ immigration voyage to America. I started with extraordinary family documents, including an 1815 military pass from Napoleon's Grand Army, ship's manifests, naturalization papers, 1836 passports, and a 1945 memoir. These raise many questions, including why the family left Europe and how they managed it. Such family connections inspired the work, but it was shaped by something millions of Americans have in common, the huge 19th century wave of European immigration. This era of post-Revolution settlement of the American frontier - on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution - has surprising parallels with today. The novel lets the reader slip into the early 19th century through the deeply human stories of families under stress and ride along for their extraordinary journey.

[Linda Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of heroic achievement that almost all Americans share

In 1836: Year of Escape, the characters are easy to connect with and fascinating to watch as they change and grow. The story is meticulously researched and rich with truths from the Age of Reason. Best of all, the author is a skilled storyteller whose powerful, graceful language carries the reader along effortlessly, wanting more and more of the story to unfold.

In these times of differences and division, it is heartening to read a powerful story of courage and resilience. While details vary, the underlying story is what so many Americans have in common...a heritage of strength and determination, a gift from ancestors either recent or long ago.

[Steve Vogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe you’re like me, possessing only thin knowledge about why and how ancestors emigrated to America.
“1836: Year of Escape” is an absolutely absorbing, entertaining story that propels you to the next chapter. But it does more than that. With striking imagery and penetrating prose, author Rose Osterman Kleidon’s book invites understanding and appreciation for circumstances that drove many western Europeans to these shores.
It made me think of Ukraine. “I have seen as few others how hard people will fight for their homeland,” says Niklas Kastner, who risks everything to remove his family from danger and political prosecution.
And of our own homeland and its divided ways when a riverboat captain tells Kastner, “…what really matters—liberty, equality, brotherhood—resides only in the heart and must be taught to each new generation.”
A good read for a lot of good reasons. Oh, by the way: If you ever wondered what it was like to endure a multi-week voyage across the Atlantic (yes, there are pirates), this is a book for you.

[john benda · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting emigration story

A compelling story with historically accurate setting about German immigration conditions and hardships to settle in USA. Helps provide sympathy to those seeking freedom and asylum from persecution in their native countries.

[Kathy Brown]

I don't do stars, but everything one could want in historical fiction. Exciting plot, engaging characters, and deep dive into historical details. Loved it.

[Gerri Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't like other immigration novels I've read. The time period isn't often covered in migration sagas. The reasons the family fled to America aren't often addressed in novels. Today, people often thoughtlessly lump all people of European descent into one stereotype. The reality is far different. This novel helps address such misconceptions, and it's all the more interesting to me because it's based on a true family story.

The story takes readers almost to a microlevel. As a fan of how people lived day-to-day, I enjoyed that aspect of the storyline. I could almost feel the mother's anguish as she packed and had to keep removing items because of the pending journey's space limitations. We're not talking consumerism, but the daily necessities of life in the 1830s.

Most of the book is taken up by the journey itself, on a sailing vessel. You will feel you are on that ship. And you'll get an understanding of what the people and places in this corner of the world - Europe to the Americas - was like at the time. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.