The Company Daughters
Publication Date: October 30, 2020
The Company Daughters is a beautifully written love story and a testimonial to the struggle of women throughout time to find their own voices and place in society. The setting is Denmark early 17th century where we meet our narrator Jana Beil. She is a young girl who has escaped her abusive family home on the outskirts of Amsterdam. She is struggling to survive and feed herself in the dead of an Amsterdam winter. She at first is lured into what she believes out of her young immaturity to be a stranger leading her to a safe place to find work, but instead finds herself a worker in the oldest occupation females were able to hold, prostitution. She spends years at the brothel until she finally makes her escape with only the clothes on her back.
Jana finds herself on the doorstep of a wealthy family in Amsterdam begging for service work in exchange for food and board. Here she meets Sontje, the lady of the house, who introduces her to her father, Peiter Reynst. From the very beginning of their meeting Sontje is the spoiled rich girl with servants and nice clothes and she treats Jana as just another servant in her household. Jana tries not to let Sontje's judgments get to her by forgiving her thinking she is the way she is because of the way she has grown up. Sontje and Jana couldn't be from two more different worlds.
Jana finds her place comfortably in the Reynst household keeping their home clean. She even feels a sense of belonging when Mr. Reynst shares his skill of map reading with her. No one ever tried to teach Jana anything and this attention makes her feel like a person with worth. Sontje even warms up to Jana asking her questions about her life and how it is to live not knowing from one day to the next where you will eat or sleep. At first, Jana takes offense to these questions thinking that Sontje is just ridiculing her as usual, but then comes to understand that she genuinely wants to know about Jana's life. At this point Jana begins to have feelings for Sontje and begins imagining how sweet her lips would taste. Sontje, however, has no eyes or time for Jana. Sontje has a suitor and is looking forward to her upcoming engagement. Mr. Reynst, being a member of a ship company, is busy readying a ship for an upcoming voyage that is going to make them even richer and more famous throughout Amsterdam. Unfortunately, Mr. Reynst ship sinks on its maiden voyage taking Mr. Reynst whole fortune and all of Sontje's future with it. Once news gets back to Amsterdam of the ship sinking Sontje finds herself abandoned by her fiancé and her father falls into an alcoholic stupor ultimately causing his death.
Jana once again finds herself without a home or food for her belly and Sontje finds herself just like Jana, no home, no money and no future. Sontje sees her only way of hope being to take an offer by the company her father worked for as a "company daughter". These women are mainly orphans with no family ties that are shipped off to a colony owned by the Dutch called Batavia. The company promises these young girls a dowry, as well as, the cost of their passage and a husband and a new life in a place way away from Amsterdam. The voyage takes ten months and during this time Jana and Sontje form a beautiful relationship, they come to understand that the heart loves who the heart loves no matter the gender, race or class of a person. The love these two share is so beautiful but at the same time unfortunate because they have to hide their love from everyone else’s judgment. It is a sad thought that after four hundred years there are still people in our society that have to hide their love for one another because their relationship is not of the "norm".
The company daughters arrive in Batavia and are soon sold off to their husbands. Sontje is taken first and receives a hateful husband that is an outcast from the rest of the colony. Jana is then taken by an older man that she is revolted by but comes to admire for his wisdom. Jana pines for Sontje, her heart is completely broken, and she never sees her because her husband doesn't allow her out in public. Jana soon confides in her husband her love for Sontje, and her husband forbids her to have anything more to do with Sontje telling her that the only thing she can do now is to forget her completely. Jana tries but her heart has found the person it loves and she cannot just forget her.
Jana goes through so much in this novel. Once her life looks like she may have a moment of happiness something tragic always happens. Instead of Jana focusing on all of the horrible situations she finds herself in and the heartbreak she experiences, she tries to focus on the good things she has in her life no matter how small or trivial they may seem to the reader. Jana's character is a perfect example of the power of human will and the endurance and hope that love can give a person. Her strong will to survive in a man's colonial society is an inspiration to any woman, that you can do whatever you set your mind to no matter your gender, race or class in life.
Thanks so much to Net Galley and Bookouture for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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