Find from the deep connects trio centuries apart
The Winter Dress by Lauren Chater, Simon & Schuster, $37.99 .. .. ..
.. .. .. .. In 2014, divers brought up a 17th-century gown discovered in a chest of a shipwreck off the Dutch Coast. This was the inspiration Lauren Chater was seeking for her third novel.
In 2018, Chater was awarded a grant by the Nelima Sidney literary fund to travel to the Netherlands to research material for her third novel, The Winter Dress. Her research is meticulous.
Here she has tied in two stories seamlessly across centuries.
The novel opens with divers exploring the coast of Texel, an island off the mainland of Holland linked to the mainland by ferries.
Knowing one of their own and also a former diver, Jo is working as a textile historian, now living in Sydney. The divers contact her before announcing their discovery. Anything divers recover from wrecks becomes immediately the property of the Dutch Government.
The divers are anxious that the dress remains part of their island Texel’s historical museum for some time before handing it over.
Jo is working on a grant from Sydney University, researching for a book. She is working with Liam, also a historian, who has fallen out of favour with the vice-chancellor. He feels his tenure is is on shaky ground.
On getting the call from her old friends, Jo plans to leave for her old home ground of Texel. Liam, sensing an opportunity to restore favour
for himself, is not far behind her.
What follows is a story of two or probably three women separated by centuries, but connected by a beautiful silk dress. Jo is determined to trace its origins.
Through an artwork, Jo discovers the real owner of the dress, Anna, a companion to the artist Catharina van Shurman.
The storyline was Jo’s and Anna’s, but I was fascinated by Catharina, real name Anna Maria van Shurman, born in 1607, a Dutch painter, engraver and scholar best known for her exceptional learning and defence of female education. Anna Maria was proficient in 14 languages and non officially the first woman to study at a Dutch University.
Chater is a clever writer. She seamlessly crosses the centuries with the story of both Jo, the researcher, Anna, the companion, and the famous artist van Shurman. On this small Dutch Island where so many ships were wrecked and secrets buried, Jo finally lays to rest her unhappiness from the past and discovers connections from long ago.
Really well written historical fiction can give the reader the impetus to delve further. The Winter Dress certainly did that for me. —