Reading my way through the CBC shortlist, I have started with the "watery" titles. So ...
David Metzenthen's "Black Water" - It's set in the period of the "Great War" (WWI) when many Australian teenagers enlisted for national service, went to Gallipoli, and didn't come back. Their main motivation, being innocents, was to biff the enemy, and they had little idea who they were. In this story, there are two brothers: the main one (the younger) is at home in a small fishing village in southern Australia (Queenscliffe) living with his father. His mother died some time ago I guess, and his older brother has gone to the war, so he (Farron) and his father (Tom) carry on as "normal". After the father drowns in a storm at sea, then the brother (Danny) returns wounded from the war, the story goes on with thoughts about coping with what you have left. This is a story of loss and loneliness and so I don't recommend it if you are looking for action and adventure. Although action and adventure are available in buckets, there is a strong sense of the price to be paid for the "thrill" of high adventure, whether that be in signing up to go to the war, or in sailing out on the southern ocean. However, if you do like some great character stories, and the kind of book that leaves you wondering what might happen next, and what might have happened if ... then I think you will like it. It has lots of sad bits. I heard it read on the Louis Braille audio book, which gave it some very old voice characteristics that you will not naturally create in your own head. Read it and weep ...
The One Memory of Flora Banks
6 years ago
