BEHIND THE BOOK: Valerie Volk and her search for Anna

In a new series on the Wakefield Press blog, we’ve asked authors to write about the background, inspiration, research and work that goes into writing a book.

This week, Valerie Volk writes about her search for her distant relative Anna Werner, who in 1889 left the German town of Lewin to search for her son in the distant colonies of Australia. This search culminated in Valerie's novel, In Search of Anna, a story that Valerie describes as a journey book, historical fiction, a study of motherhood, a detective novel, and a romantic tale all rolled into one.

Searching for Anna

I’ve known Anna for most of my life. She has lived in a sepia-toned print on the walls of my stairwell, in the company of assorted parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. She is the only one from an earlier generation, my great-grandmother, and her face has always intrigued me.
I’ve lived with an old family story about her that fascinated me even more. Family lore tells me that she was intrepid, resourceful, and well in advance of her period, the late 1800s. She must have been, because this farming woman of southern Germany set off, alone, on an unheard of journey in her way of life, to search for the son who had gone missing somewhere in the Australian colonies.
I still marvel at the courage she showed. First the long trip from a little village in Silesia, train travel across Germany, through Berlin, westward to Hamburg and the shipping yards. Then the long steamship journey south – a voyage that was beset with difficulties and had problems that caused lengthy delays, creating a journey of almost 14 weeks. Her arrival in Melbourne – to face what? The last letter from her son, two years earlier, had been from Melbourne, saying that he was planning to head north to Queensland.
It was an almost unthinkable challenge for her. I know a little of how she traced him (family legend again), but most of my book you could call creative speculation. Their final reunion, in a small Riverina community of German settlers, is, however, a matter of fact.
Writing this book was a long-held ambition, and to see it finally launched early last year was in many ways the realisation of a dream. I’m pleased that Wakefield Press was willing to bring the project to fruition.

My own journey into the book was in itself a search.

The book’s title, In Search of Anna, perhaps reflects my initial intention, a research book about my own quest to find more about this intriguing woman. That changed as I became more absorbed in her story, and realised how many unanswered questions there were.
Central was the ‘why?’ Why would a very ordinary woman undertake an enterprise like this, to the horror of her family and friends? Other questions followed: how could she afford such a trip? How would she go about finding one young man in the scattered colonies that would later become Australia?

As I began, the emphasis changed. The book was no longer my search for Anna; the focus became her search.

Primarily her search for her son, but even more fundamentally a woman’s search for herself. From a rural family background, an early out of wedlock pregnancy and a marriage to a drunken and abusive husband, the Anna I have created has her own journey of discovery to make, into who she really is and what she might yet become.
The young real-life Anna is still unknown territory; I had no material on her early days, so was free to be as inventive as I needed to be. (Heartfelt apologies to the husband I gave her, my great-grandfather, who probably was a kindly, decent man, the antithesis of the Otto I have drawn.) The early chapters of the book have no basis in fact, but they serve my purpose well, putting her in contact with a way of life totally different from her home.

Research for the book was four-pronged, all of it fascinating.

First the Germany of the second half of the nineteenth century: politically dynamic, with nation-building by Bismarck, carefully engineered foreign wars to create national identity, the development of steam power and railway systems, domestic upheavals with growth of industry and attempts like the Weavers’ Revolt to stem the changes that were destroying incomes. All this a background to what is happening in the young Anna’s life, with her pregnancy and unhappy marriage. That helps also to account for her total devotion, near obsession, with the son who becomes the centre of her emotional life.
Stage two of the research was equally absorbing, as I became immersed in the world of nineteenth century steam ships, for both Anna’s son Kurt and she, two years later, travel to the colonies on ships where conditions and difficulties were eye-opening. Thanks to Trove and newspapers of the period I was able to gain valuable insight into this world.
With her arrival in the ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ of the late 1880s I could move straight into the opulence and extravagance which Anna views only from a distance, as she pursues her search for the trail of her son. Another absorbing period of research as I entered this world, via newspapers and libraries in Victoria. Also a nostalgia trip for me, as I recalled researching the Melbourne of the 1880s to write an essay for my Melbourne University second year Australian History course. Decades back. Ah, memories!

At this stage, fact became stranger than fiction, because I was able to find the actual advertisement that Anna placed in Riverina newspapers for many weeks, having traced her son to southern New South Wales. Following her was almost like an exercise in detection, as she pursued the trail through the German clubs and immigrant church societies.

So the final period of research took me to small farming communities established by German settlers in southern New South Wales, and the way of life they lived. Here Anna, (spoiler alert!) now reunited with her son, also finds personal happiness that she had never anticipated. She has changed, and the attractive and confident woman she has become is ready for unexpected love.
So it’s a journey book, historical fiction in a fascinating period across two continents, a psychological study of motherhood, a detective novel as she hunts the missing boy, and finally a romantic tale of a woman who discovers herself. The reviews have been a reward, especially the five stars in The Advertiser’s books page. Even more, the lovely feedback comments from readers.
Great fun to research, and even more to write. As I finished it, I felt a real sense of regret, like the farewelling of a dear friend. Except that she still hangs in my stairwell, and I can give her an appreciative smile as I pass by.

About the Author:

Valerie Volk is the descendent of a Jindera blacksmith who owned a shop in the main street for over 50 years. She is a writer of poetry, verse novels and short fiction. In past lives she has been a secondary English teacher, tertiary lecturer, and director of an international education program. Valerie has won awards for both poetry and prose and has published widely in journals, anthologies and magazines. She lives in Adelaide.
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