Teresa Lee

Archipelago

Archipelago is a 94,000-word historical adventure set in 1871, when archaeology was emerging from treasure hunting. Beginning in Victorian London and sweeping across the Aegean, it reimagines the classic swashbuckling adventure through characters traditionally kept at its margins, while challenging imperial narratives.

Celia is a disillusioned young woman suffocating beneath the expectations of polite society. On the day she comes of age, a letter arrives from her presumed-dead brother, Lewis, revealing their late parents’ secret lives as illegal treasure hunters – and summoning her to an abandoned Greek island with the promise of answers about their family legacy.

Lewis' trail draws her into Limehouse, London’s original Chinatown, where her path collides with Lin, a half-Chinese laundress with a gentleman’s education searching for her estranged archaeologist father, and Ralf, a guarded Scottish youth with secrets of his own, working for the local Chinese mob.

Together, they sail for Greece on a perilous odyssey. Forced to rely on one another despite the gulf between their worlds, they are unaware that they are being shadowed by a sinister organisation claiming guardianship over the world’s treasures. Their voyage culminates in a brutal sea battle aboard an all-female smuggler ship.

As Celia’s romantic vision of adventure collides with harsh reality, what began as a quest becomes a reckoning with the realities of empire, forcing her to confront her own privilege, her family’s violent legacy, and the true cost of truth and freedom.

Fast-paced and character-driven, at Archipelago’s heart are three unlikely friends forging tenuous bonds across lines of race, class and culture in a world built on inequality and exploitation.

The novel is deeply informed by my archaeological background, Chinese heritage and London upbringing.

Status: Completed manuscript. Seeking representation.

Stay in touch for occasional updates on Archipelago, and a few things I don’t share elsewhere.

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