


Narrated primarily by the two wives, and based on a real-life legal case, The Wives of Henry Oades is the riveting story of what happens when Henry, Margaret, and Nancy face persecution for bigamy. There he marries Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a new baby, and it seems they’ve both found happiness in the midst of their mourning-until Henry’s first wife and children show up, alive and having finally escaped captivity. Grief-stricken, he books passage to California. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected-and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children.įor months, Henry scours the surrounding wilderness, until all hope is lost and his wife and children are presumed dead. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington.

Audiobooks the Whole Family Will Enjoy.Have You Listened to the Most Popular Titles in the Collection?.Biographies of Early Americans - eBooks.eBook Shorts: Your Favorite Stories, but Shorter.Next assignment: "The Last Wife of Henry VIII" by Carolly Erickson The bond between these women forms the core of the novel.

"The story is told mainly from the wives' perspectives on their unusual predicament, and both emerge as the pillars of strength upon which others rely. What members thought: "This is a story about good people caught in heartbreaking circumstances, and a community that chooses to judge rather than to understand," Eichler said. They form a blended family of sorts, but they are brought to trial for bigamy." Six years later, after escaping from their captors, his wife and children track him down and are shocked to find him living a new life with a new family. He restarts his life in America and remarries. Said Eichler: "It's the story of Henry, who believes his wife and children died in a New Zealand native tribe attack. What it's about: This novel is based on a true story, a 19th-century bigamy case in California.
