Publisher’s cover note:
‘In a bizarre 1890s social experiment, a band of 500 ordinary Australians followed an English journalist and visionary, William Lane, to found a socialist utopia in the tropical rainforests of Paraguay. It is a story of politics, heroism and hard struggle, dreams and disillusionment, sexual adventures and romantic love. When the colonists’ hopes collapsed in turmoil, many, including Mary Gilmore, returned home. Others stayed on, learning Spanish and the Guaraní language and becoming part of the culture of their adopted country. These descendants of socialists also endured the harsh Stroessner dictatorship.