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A review by novel_nomad
Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
5.0
It is rare to discover a historical fiction set in Victorian-era South Australia, but to have that same book carve a place in my heart is even rarer. Lucy Treloar's debut is filled with rich and lyrical prose that weaves through the foreign yet familiar landscape of the Coorong and South Australian bushlands.
The Finch family are down on their luck, and the enterprising father decides to gamble their futures on a stock run along the Coorong. The landscape is vast and everlasting, yet attempts are made to settle into a family home pieced together from the bones of shipwrecks. Hester is a constant companion throughout the novel, as her recollections on the desolation and destruction wrought by her father on his family and the land are emotionally charged. A brilliantly stark depiction of settler life and mentality towards the land and First Australians, and the interactions between the Finch family and Tully, an Aboriginal boy, allow the destructive colonialist ideas overpower the idealistic enlightened thoughts - especially when Mr Finch is faced with ruin and disgrace.
A once enlightening and questioning, the drama of the novel drives the reader to question rights of ownership, colonialist past, male dominance in settler states and the lingering attitudes towards First Australians. A historical fiction I would recommend to an enquiring mind with a love of rich prose.
The Finch family are down on their luck, and the enterprising father decides to gamble their futures on a stock run along the Coorong. The landscape is vast and everlasting, yet attempts are made to settle into a family home pieced together from the bones of shipwrecks. Hester is a constant companion throughout the novel, as her recollections on the desolation and destruction wrought by her father on his family and the land are emotionally charged. A brilliantly stark depiction of settler life and mentality towards the land and First Australians, and the interactions between the Finch family and Tully, an Aboriginal boy, allow the destructive colonialist ideas overpower the idealistic enlightened thoughts - especially when Mr Finch is faced with ruin and disgrace.
A once enlightening and questioning, the drama of the novel drives the reader to question rights of ownership, colonialist past, male dominance in settler states and the lingering attitudes towards First Australians. A historical fiction I would recommend to an enquiring mind with a love of rich prose.