Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsExtraordinary
Reviewed in Australia on 2 August 2018
This is a very assured and compelling debut novel, complex and rich. It follows the life of Alice Hart, who we first meet as a child living wild between beach and cane field with her mother and abusive father. After a catastrophic fire in which her parents die, she is taken inland by a grandmother she has never met to Thornfield Farm. This is a place where troubled women put their lives back together raising native flowers. It’s a healing place, but not without a legacy of sadness and violence. Grandmother June has made decisions which precipitate undesirable outcomes. There are secrets she won’t talk about. When Alice - now grownup and managing the farm - finds out why her Bulgarian boyfriend abandoned her years before, she feels betrayed and as flooding rains ruin the farm, she drives west, ending up as a park ranger at a sacred Aboriginal site in the red desert, determined to shape her life freely. There, she falls completely in love with Dylan, another ranger. As often happens in life, history repeats itself. Dylan is abusive. This part of the book is especially convincing: Dylan’s self-justifications and Alice’s desperate attempts to not provoke him as she loses her ability to see the situation objectively are saddening, and we fear for her safety. Suffice to say that Alice finds her way back to the coast and to nurturing Sally, the woman who sat by her bedside many years ago. Alice finally gets to know the family secrets that were hidden before.
The book is filled with great characters from varying cultural traditions, providing rich symbology. Also fascinating is the language of flowers. Based on the Victorian tradition, meanings are given to Australian natives which inform the various themes of the novel. Outstanding work.
