Josephine Humphreys: Nowhere else on earth

By PHILIPPA JAMIESON*

The work of a master storyteller, Nowhere Else on Earth is an engrossing historical novel that gives a unique slant on the American Civil War. The heroine is serious but sassy Rhoda Strong, daughter of a Native American and a Scotsman, brought up dirt poor in the swampy, turpentine-producing woods area of Robeson County, North Carolina.

Scuffletown is peopled with Lumbee Indians, whose origins have been obscured, but this is of much less concern to them than it is to the good doctor McCabe, who is something of an amateur anthropologist. Also in the area are Scots plantation owners, freed black slaves, and others of mixed race.

Rhoda's parents recognise that their daughter has the brains to be a schoolteacher, so she goes every day to the McCabe household for lessons. But, having learnt to read, Rhoda tires of the "mack" (Scottish) culture, and dreams instead of love - "the kind as fierce as fire". Well, she gets it, and a whole lot more besides.

With the onset of the war, Rhoda's Indian brothers and cousins avoid conscription into the Confederate Army by becoming outlaws and hiding out in the roadless, notoriously difficult terrain of the swampland. Rhoda falls for the elusive ringleader, Henry Lowrie, against her mother's advice that it will end in tragedy.

Scuffletown is not a major arena in the war, but everyone's bellies are affected by the interruption of commerce and soldiers raiding the fields and stores. The area is the scene of numerous local battles, friction between the two communities, mack and Indian - or sheriff and outlaw. Henry is increasingly embroiled in this and so Rhoda becomes involved, emerging as a resourceful survivor of the hardships and slaughter.

Nowhere Else on Earth is meticulously researched, and many of the characters, including Rhoda and Henry, are based on real people. Humphreys has a knack for the Carolina vernacular, and makes her characters come alive with filmic vividness.

She starts out slowly, setting the scene with descriptions of life in the backwoods, and builds the story gradually until it grips the reader with a series of intense crises. The straightforward prose underlines the impact of the traumatic events, which were described so poignantly I was close to tears.

The scope of this saga is broad, encapsulating the effects of colonisation, racism, class, poverty, and the different effects of war on women and men, without lecturing. But is is also a love story, written with warmth, compassion and a penetrating eye on the human condition.

Arrow Books

$26.95

* Elspeth Sandys' latest novel is The Passing Guest; Philippa Jamieson is a Dunedin freelance writer.