NOTES :
This novel made it all the way into conventional print in 1993, published by Simon & Schuster, and it did modestly well. You can still find the odd second hand copy or two of that First Edition online at times, and the last few new ones are at Abe Books (link below).
The best reaction I had to it when it was originally published was by Jamie Grant at "WHO" Magazine, where it made the 1993 Top Ten in their "Best Of Pages" book section, along with such daunting company as Roddy Doyle and John Grisham. I was chuffed. I've used his review here instead of a Blurb. Be a fool not to!
(And bless you Jamie, I've named three grandchildren after you).
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REVIEW :"This clever book is not what it appears at first to be... (and)... the first chapter continues with the deception. Written in the plain, homespun style of a yarn, it introduces 50-year-old Peter Woodley, who has returned to the country town where he was born, to arrange the funeral of his father Tom. The next chapter, dated 50 years earlier, presents a young woman alone in a house made of tar barrels, kerosene tins and corrugated iron. The setting, miles from anything, and the emotion are again what one would expect in a bush yarn.
"From this point, it begins to dawn on the reader that the book is not a fictionalised memoir but a novel of most subtle construction. Peter's childhood and adolescence are conveyed in a series of chapters in which the writing style alters to fit the age of the narrator. As the novel progresses, it becomes apparent that Peter and Michael Coote - son of Tom Woodley's best mate - share a secret neither is aware of, thought the reader is. Tension is maintained as one waits for them to discover it.
"Though most of it is set in a country town, this is far from being a typical Australian story. The setting is scarcely relevant, as the drama rests on character and psychology rather than on action. It deserves to become one of the classics of Australian literature. Novels of such intricate structure, perfectly sustained, are few and far between."
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DIRECT LINKS TO THE SALES SHELF.....
To The Sales Shelf - (Kindle e-book)
To The Sales Shelf - (Kobo e-book)
To The Sales Shelf - (Abe Books - First Edition paperback)