It is 1880, and immigrants are flocking to a new refuge from the economic and racial turmoil of the late nineteenth century. For New Orleans chef Amadeo Roselyn, the Isle of Touperdu is where he can open his own restaurant and raise his daughters as educated, marriageable ladies in a place free of the violence roiling the post-Reconstruction era south. For Gwennoelle Duday, the matriarch of a rackety family of witches from the French village of Fourche, it is where the Dudays can act freely, unfettered by other people of “talent” and any foolish talk of rules and higher law.
But the night before they disembark, a question troubles both Amadeo in first class, and Madame Duday in steerage. It is one that will haunt them for years after they step onto the island — is the promise of Touperdu a lie?
The Newcomers is the first novel in a series set on the fictional island of Touperdu, where the lines blur between superstition and magic, legend and history, promises and betrayal. Two immigrant families confront the question all outsiders face when they enter a new world. What can you do — and what will you give up — to truly belong?
Pam Troy worked for twenty years in the Events Department at San Franciscos Mechanics Institute, one of the oldest libraries on the West Coast. Though she has resided in San Francisco for most of her adult life, she was born and raised in Louisiana, and her fascination with that states history, culture and folklore went into creating the world of Touperdu. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies like Space and Time, Crimson Fog, State of Horror: Louisiana, and Another Dimension. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, a cat, and far too many books.
