A few years ago, when my first novel was published, I posted the following to Facebook and got my first (kind of) viral response with over 5K likes. It read as follows:
This is a photograph of Louise Michel. Before the Franco-Prussian War, she was a schoolteacher, poet, and radical. During the Siege of Paris and the Commune that followed, she both took up arms and fought alongside soldiers and helped nurse the wounded. By all accounts, she was fearless in battle and would plunge headlong into the line of fire to save a life—even a stray cat’s. She was eventually exiled to New Caledonia for life for her views and actions. The radical notions she devoted her life to included public education, healthcare, and gender equality.
If you search American newspapers at the end of the 19th century for Louise Michel’s name, you’ll find dozens of reports that the famous anarchist feminist was about to visit the US and hold meetings. She was eventually released from exile, but she never travelled to America. The reports in the paper were all fake news, fanning fear in socialism early on with the most terrifying woman they could imagine. The articles were always sure to include details of her ugliness and shabby dress.
Louise Michel plays an important but supporting part in my new novel, The Agent and the Aeronaut. (And the leading role in its sequel, currently being written.) She is one of the most remarkable people I know. As her world crumbled around her, she had an amazing capacity for always keeping her clear sense of direction and doing what was right.
The novel is 292 pages and $18. It can be ordered from Levellers Press.
Update: The sequel to The Agent and the Aeronaut has been written, and indeed, it is all about Louise Michel and her exile odyssey to New Caledonia. The sweeping novel details the true story of her capture, imprisonment, trial, and sea voyage to the island on the far side of the world.
In the setting of the book, the new French penal colony was recently ruled by tribes (reportedly cannibals) who still lived across most of the island. Imprisoned, Louise befriended Daoumi, a local Kanak working in the kitchen, and they traded stories. He taught her his tribe’s legends and fairy tales, and she taught him how to be a revolutionary.
The novel is called “Exile,” and it’s the best thing I’ve written. I’m still searching for a literary agent to help me bring it into the world. I’m busy working on a third book in my trilogy about the Paris Commune.
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