Australia ~ Lost Voices

Christopher Koch

Pam recommends a book about Australia:  "I just read a wonderful book by Christopher Koch called Lost Voices for my book group.  I reviewed it on my blog.  It takes place in Hobart.  We have convict history here and there is a lot written about it.  People were transported here from England in the late 1700s and 1800s and it started out as a penal settlement which is an unusual beginning for a country.  Convicts also went to Sydney as well.  New Zealand was too violent with the Maoris for settlement there and the USA was in the middle of the American Revolution, so Australia was the destination."

Lost Voices ~ by Christopher Koch, 2012, fiction (Australia)

Young Hugh Dixon believes he can save his father from ruin if he asks his estranged great-uncle Walter — a wealthy lawyer who lives alone in a Tasmanian farmhouse passed down through the family — for help.  As he is drawn into Walter's rarefied world, Hugh discovers that both his uncle and the farmhouse are links to a notorious episode in the mid-nineteenth century.  Walter's father, Martin, was living in the house when it was raided by members of an outlaw community run by Lucas Wilson, a charismatic ex-soldier attempting to build a utopia.  But like later societies with communitarian ideals, Nowhere Valley was controlled by the gun, with Wilson as benevolent dictator.  Twenty-year-old Martin's sojourn in the Valley as Wilson's disciple has become an obsession with Walter Dixon:  one which haunts his present and keeps the past tantalizingly close.  As Walter encourages Hugh's ambition to become an artist, and again comes to his aid when one of Hugh's friends is charged with murder, the way life's patterns repeat themselves from one generation to another becomes eerily apparent.

Read more about the author, Christopher Koch.
Read Pam's review on her blog, Travellin' Penguin.

Tasmania, Australia

I (Bonnie) recommend this novel that I read a decade or so ago.  These discussion questions from ReadingGroupGuide helped me remember some of what I read.  Wikipedia has an interesting plot summary.

English Passengers ~ by Matthew Kneale, 2000, fiction (Australia)

In 1857 when Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his band of rum smugglers from the Isle of Man have most of their contraband confiscated by British Customs, they are forced to put their ship up for charter.  The only takers are two eccentric Englishmen who want to embark for the other side of the globe.  The Reverend Geoffrey Wilson believes the Garden of Eden was on the island of Tasmania.  His traveling partner, Dr. Thomas Potter, unbeknownst to Wilson, is developing a sinister thesis about the races of men.  Meanwhile, an aboriginal in Tasmania named Peevay recounts his people's struggles against the invading British, a story that begins in 1824, moves into the present with approach of the English passengers in 1857, and extends into the future in 1870.  These characters and many others come together in a storm of voices that vividly bring a past age to life.

Australia

Amy said, "Hi Bonnie, Don't know if you are still running this challenge, but I just read a new book for Australia: The Voices by Susan Elderkin. Here is the link to my review."

In the remote, blood red dust of the Australian bush, thirteen-year-old Billy Saint turns to the stark landscape and mesmerizing spirits of the native Aborigines for the companionship he lacks at home. When he is befriended by Maisie, an enigmatic Aboriginal girl who has "sung him up," he slowly comes to realize that he is meddling with powers far beyond his control. Ten years later, Billy lies in a hospital bed, recovering from gruesome wounds of mysterious origin. Shifting between his hospital stay and the childhood that led him there, The Voices unfolds into a haunting exploration of the relationship between a white man, the land he loves, and the native spirits of the country struggling to be heard before they are lost forever.
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Thanks, Amy. Yes, I hope to continue this challenge a bit longer. Maybe this will explain my long absence from this blog. To everyone, please re-submit any book suggestions you've made that I failed to get posted.
Thanks,
~~~ Bonnie

Australia

Historia said, "Banjo Patterson - poems from Australia. His long poem 'Man from Snowy River' is considered the BEST, and it surely does represent the Australian Outback. Could also be read for books to movies as well. Alice Springs by Nevil Shute is another good book."

Banjo Paterson (Complete Poems) is one of Australia's best-loved poets and his verse is among Australia's enduring traditions. This complete collection of verse shows the bush balladeer at his very best with favorites such as "A Bush Christening," "The Man from Ironbark," "Clancy of the Overflow," and the immortal "The Man from Snowy River." A. B. (Banjo) Paterson was born in Australia in 1864 and wrote poetry and fiction from 1900 until his death in 1941.

A Town Like Alice tells of a young woman who miraculously survived a Japanese "death march" in World War II, and of an Australian soldier, also a prisoner of war, who offered to help her — even at the cost of his life. When an old Scottish man dies, his sole heir is a young woman named Jean Paget, who is soon off to Malaya to repay the village where she stayed during WWII by digging a well. The story, based on real life, is about how she and other women were held prisoner by the Japanese, but eventually found refuge in a small village. They had encountered Joe Harmon, a young Australian, who was crucified for stealing food for them. When Paget returns to Malaya, she learns that Harmon had survived and returned to Australia, where eventually meet up. Jean, determined to make her home in Harmon's area, sets out to make the godforsaken town into "A Town Like Alice" (Alice Springs).

Australia

Jill said, "I have some suggestions ... (3) I am the Messenger (Zusak) - Australia."

Meet Ed Kennedy — underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission? Winner of the 2003 Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award in Australia, I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love.