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The Roving Party
No full text1829, Tasmania. A group of men—convicts, a farmer, two free black traders, and Black Bill, an Aboriginal man brought up from childhood as a white man—are led by John Batman, a notorious historical figure, on a “roving party.” Their purpose is massacre. With promises of freedom, land grants and money, each is willing to risk his life for the prize. Passing over many miles of tortured country, the roving party searches for Aborigines, taking few prisoners and killing freely, Batman never abandoning the visceral intensity of his hunt. And all the while, Black Bill pursues his personal quarry, the much-feared warrior, Manalargena. A surprisingly beautiful evocation of horror and brutality, The Roving Party is a meditation on the intricacies of human nature at its most raw
La Battue
No full textAustralie, 1829. John Batman, aventurier et homme d’affaires, entreprend avec une milice constituée de colons, de repris de justice et de métis, d’éliminer les Aborigènes qui gênent ses plans de conquête. Une véritable battue au cours de laquelle ces hommes, aveuglés par la promesse d’un lopin de terre ou d’un peu d’argent, se révéleront dans toute leur cruauté.\ud
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Déployant une langue incandescente qui rappelle le Méridien de sang de Cormac McCarthy, Rohan Wilson évoque et interroge, à la manière d’un western crépusculaire, la sauvagerie et la brutalité humaines. S’inspirant d’un épisode réel de la colonisation de la Tasmanie dont il est originaire, il donne à ce premier roman, qui lui a valu d’être couronné par plusieurs prix littéraires dans son pays, une force et un souffle inoubliables
from "The Roving Party"
No full textThey walked down through a dry creek bed lined with swamp gums\ud
grown so close together they appeared as one living whole. The men\ud
passed around these trees in single file, among sun shafts which pierced\ud
the canopy but threw no light upon their faces nor warmed their bones.\ud
In the gloom the air was thick with flies and the mushrooms grew like\ud
the sightless larvae of some queer and unnamed vermin. Before long\ud
they found themselves among a stand of trees which had been stripped\ud
of their bark for windbreaks. The naked trunks were carved over with\ud
bisected circles, detailings of the moon and sun, images of snakes and\ud
roo. The Parramatta men gazed at the finely wrought icons but John\ud
Batman found more to hold his attention. Pressed onto the flesh of the\ud
tree was a bloody handprint. Batman removed his hat and crouched to\ud
examine the ground and Black Bill joined him. One injured man had\ud
passed this way..
To Name Those Lost
No full textA powerful, suspenseful tale about a father and son in search of one another, this prize-winning novel based on real-life events is a classic western story of vengeance and redemption set against the sweeping, merciless grandeur of the Australian frontier.\ud
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It is the summer of 1874. Launceston, a colonial outpost on the southern Australian island of Tasmania, hovers on the brink of anarchy, teeming with revolutionaries, convicts, drunks, crooked cops, and poor strugglers looking for a break. Outlaw Thomas Toosey races to this dangerous bedlam to find his motherless twelve-year-old son before the city swallows the child whole, but he is pursued by more than just the law. Hindering his progress at every turn is a man to whom he owes a terrible debt: the vengeful Irishman Fitheal Finn, whose hooded companion hides a grotesque secret.\ud
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Brilliantly told in galloping, lyrical prose and infused with gothic tones reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, Daniel Woodrell, and William Faulkner, To Name Those Lost is a gripping story of fatherly devotion and of one man’s search for moral bearings in a lawless society
Eaglehawk IDC
No full textIn 2074, due to years of rising sea levels, a relatively mild tsunami destroys the island nation of the Maldives. Some of the refugees are brought to Tasmania, near Port Arthur, and warehoused in Eaglehawk Immigration Detention Centre, a for-profit facility operated by the private US prison company, Cabey-Yasuda Corrections. To cover the cost of their internment, the detainees are required to work at a manufacturing plant run by the company. Only after paying off their debt can their asylum applications be considered. Among the survivors sent to Tasmania is Yamaan Ali Umair, a Muslim man from the city of Malé. Concurrent to his story is the story of Rin Braden, a Japanese-American woman working for Cabey- Yasuda Corrections
To Name Those Lost
No full textSummer 1874, and Launceston teeters on the brink of anarchy. After abandoning his wife and child many years ago, the Black War veteran Thomas Toosey must return to the city to search for William, his now motherless twelve-year-old son. He travels through the island's northern districts during a time of impossible hardship - hardship that has left its mark on him too. Arriving in Launceston, however, Toosey discovers a town in chaos. He is desperate to find his son amid the looting and destruction, but at every turn he is confronted by the Irish transportee Fitheal Flynn and his companion, the hooded man, to whom Toosey owes a debt that he must repay. 'To Name Those Lost' is the story of a father's journey. Wilson has an eye for the dirt, the hardness, the sheer dog-eat-doggedness of the lives of the poor. Human nature is revealed in all its horror and beauty as Thomas Toosey struggles with the good and the vile in himself and learns what he holds important.\ud
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<i>"Short-listed, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Fiction Prize, 2015--Winner, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Fiction Prize, 2015"</i>--Publisher websit
The needle in the shoe
No full textA biographer is writing the story of one of Tasmania's great writers. He thinks he's uncovered the emotional core of the writer's work. When he invesitgates further, he finds a startling truth about his life's work
The Roving Party
No full text1829, Tasmania. John Batman, ruthless, singleminded; four convicts, the youngest still only a stripling; Gould, a downtrodden farmhand; two free black trackers; and powerful, educated Black Bill, brought up from childhood as a white man. This is the roving party and their purpose is massacre. With promises of freedom, land grants and money, each is willing to risk his life for the prize. Passing over many miles of tortured country, the roving party searches for Aborigines, taking few prisoners and killing freely, Batman never abandoning the visceral intensity of his hunt. And all the while, Black Bill pursues his personal quarry, the much-feared warrior, Manalargena. An outstanding novel; one worthy of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award. 'The evocation of the landscape is nothing short of masterly; I really, really am in awe of the amount of work that's gone into this...' Margo Lanagan 'I'm still talking about this story to people long after finishing it - the spark in it...\ud
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"<i>A surprisingly beautiful evocation of horror and brutality, The Roving Party is a meditation on the intricacies of human nature at its most raw. Winner of the 2011 The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award.</i>"--Publisher websit
Extinction Discourse in Wanting and Doctor Wooreddy”s Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World.
No full textTasmanian convict saga gets skilful update from Rachel Leary
No full textA review of "Bridget Crack" written by Rachel Leary, published by Allen & Unwin.\ud
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There’s a long tradition in Tasmanian literature of the gothic convict saga. In fact, Tasmanians do the convict novel better than anyone. We have a wealth of mythology, trope and imagery on which to draw and an outsized sense of our own past, a past that’s visible in the architecture wherever you go on the island.\ud
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Our best known book, Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life, provided the template and writers have iterated on it down the generations. Think particularly of Richard Butler, Bryce Courtenay, Christopher Koch and Richard Flanagan. Now Rachel Leary has provided us with a contemporary, skilful update on the dustier of these traditions in her new novel Bridget Crack..
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