Caravan of Death

A gripping novel inspired by real events about the people who escaped to Brazil to find a new life. A story of the human ability to find joy under dire circumstances and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Sweden in 1891. A poor country with great social contradictions. Stockholm is in the grip of 'Brazil fever'. Unscrupulous agents recruit passengers in return for commissions. In May, the first ship leaves Skeppsbron full of poor people who cannot afford to travel to America. On board are young Arvid and Anna. For them, the journey is anything but what they had expected. Having been told that they are traveling to heaven on earth, the journey turns out to be hell. Many die on the way, and the temporary camps are filled with misery, disease and hunger.

It takes a year for the Swedes to reach their destination and to get started farming, but then twenty years before they actually and finally found their home. The story of Arvid, Anna and all the others is a relatively unknown tale of our past, with eerie parallels to what is happening today, as millions of people are displaced or migrating over continents. It’s a story of suffering, but also of human strength and ingenuity.

Caravan of Death is a fictional novel, but a story closely related to what actually happened as well as to what is happening today. It is the first part of a trilogy about a forgotten migration and the people who survived.