A family torn apart Down Under ELIZABETH BUCHAN
SALT CREEK by Lucy Treloar (Aardvark Bureau £9.99)
AFTER a succession of bad business investments, Stanton Finch flees from the comforts of Adelaide to the remote and inhospitable Coorong in South Australia in 1855.
But his wife ails, the terrain is intractable and the dispossessed Aborigines are a constant reproach — so much so that Stanton decides to educate Tully, a native boy, almost as if he were his son.
Observing her family’s implosion is 15- year- old Hester, whose intelligence and clear sight lie at the heart of this superb novel.
‘He has spent most of his life hoping,’ she says of her father, as the struggle to battle depression and disillusionment is agonisingly played out by parents and children.
Empathetic and beautifully written, the story drives deep into the pioneering experience with the confidence of a writer perfectly at ease with her subject.
A COLUMN OF FIRE by Ken Follett (Macmillan £20)
IN THE third of the Kingsbridge Series, Protestant Ned Willard returns home from Calais in 1558, determined to marry Margery Fitzgerald who has haunted his exile.
Unfortunately, Margery is a Catholic and Rollo, her brother, has other plans for his marketable sister. Like many, their love story seems destined to dissolve in the face of huge social change.
Personal contentment being off the cards, Ned finds himself in the service of the powerful in France — but, with the accession of Elizabeth I, will his fortunes change?
Deploying a substantial cast of characters, Follett unrolls a familiar history of religious and political ferment and turns it into accessible and enjoyable fiction.
A caveat — at more than 750 pages, it’s tough on the biceps.
TREASON’S SPRING by Robert Wilton (Corvus £18.99)
IN 1792, the French Revolution is turning unpredictable and violent. Factions gather in the fashionable salons and the streets are awash with spies.
The National Convention is headed by the unscrupulous Joseph Fouché, who is searching for important correspondence of King Louis. So, too, is the mysterious Scotsman Keith Kinnaird, who has travelled to Paris at the behest of his friend, Henry Greene, who is also missing. How are they connected?
Robert Wilton’s fictional device is to insert ‘documents’ into his narratives in the manner of an historian.
Here, the story is built up with alternating reports from the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey and dramatised episodes.
A clever, sophisticated novel emerges of a revolutionary psychosis into which are swept all manner of lovers and liars, innocents and manipulators.