Nancy Bentley

The First Australian Female Sailor

by Tracey Hawkins and illustrated by Jacqui Grantford

New Frontier Publishing. Australian, Junior, Historical. Hardcover RRP $24.95

Nancy Bentley lived in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1920. While playing around the harbour she was bitten by a snake. There were no hospitals or doctors nearby but luckily the HMAS Sydney was moored in the bay. The problems began the moment Nancy set foot on the ship. In those days, no woman was allowed on board a naval vessel. The Captain was at a dilemma. How could Nancy stay on board under the care of the ships surgeon? A unique solution was found. At six years of age Nancy Bentley was enlisted into the Royal Australian Navy.

Children will delight in reading this wonderful story that tells a small but interesting part of Australia’s history. With original photographs and scans of Nancy’s entrance and discharge papers, Nancy Bentley is an excellent Australian history book to have on school shelves.

The Reading Stack reviewed Tracey Hawkins Martha’s Journey in April 2009 and Jacqui Grantford’s Molly’sMemory Jar in March 2010.

The Language of Flowers

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Random House. History, Adult Other. Paperback RRP $32.99

Guest Reviewer - Di Bates

The language of flowers, sometimes called floriography, was a Victorian-era means of communication in which various flowers and floral arrangements were used to send coded messages, allowing individuals to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken. This is the crux upon which this unusual book is premised.

Victoria Jones has spent her childhood in foster care with a caseworker, Meredith, who cares less about her charge. Victoria’s first person account begins, when, at the age of eighteen, she is emancipated from her San Franciscan group home and enters the world without any relatives, friends or even a home. For a decade she has spent every spare moment memorising the meanings and scientific descriptions of individual flowers and collecting books such as the Dictionary of Flowers. She knows, for example, that a marigold represents grief, that basil means hate and that dahlias stand for dignity. This knowledge is to stand her in good stead when Meredith leaves to fend for herself with a twenty-dollar bill and a note that reads, ‘Buy food and find a job.’

After a period of homelessness, Victoria begins casual work with a florist, Renata, who, realising the teenager’s skill with flowers, increases her hours and responsibilities, and gives her a sense of belonging. Victoria finds it difficult to relate to people except through plants, so that when a mysterious man at the markets where Victoria buys flowers starts a tentative relationship, Victoria begins to realise that perhaps she can find happiness in relationships. Her career flourishes and she finishes up becoming a sought after wedding floral designer.

This is an easy-to-read book and enjoyable for anyone who relates to flowers and how important they can be in one’s life. I found it odd that a person like Victoria would only relate to others through the medium of flowers. However, I allowed myself to go on the journey with the protagonist as she develops self-esteem and confidence in her dealings with others and moves from homelessness into shared accommodations.

This quirky novel, which has at its heart the story of mother-daughter relationships, abounds with interesting characters. It moves between past and present, building up a picture of Victoria to explain why she is sometimes remote, difficult and asocial. A first novel, the book has already sold into 25 countries, so obviously the publishers have great expectations of it.

http://www.vanessadiffenbaugh.com/

Pillars of the Earth

by Ken Follett

Pan Macmillan. Adult Historical Fiction. Paperback RRP $24.95

This is a work of enormous scope. Set in medieval 12th century England, it revolves around the fictional Knightsbridge Cathedral. Even more than the absorbing details of cathedral building history, are the lives of the people who live, work and wield power there.

Three strong story threads build not only the cathedral of stone and coloured light but also a vivid and intimate tale that stretches across lives in different social strata. This is a time where great privilege and power is in the hands of a few, the kingship is in constant turmoil and the villages suffer through it all.

The Master Builder Tom and his blended family offer an insight not only into village family life but also an exploration of a man confronted with a difficult decision. He loves his family but there are times when it seems he loves the cathedral even more.

Prior Philip is a good man who is sometimes blinded by the laws and rites of the Church. He is an excellent organiser and planner and his work often brings him into conflict with the ambitious elements of the Church. The building of the Cathedral, the successes and failures, map his own progress against a backdrop of the historical power struggle between State and Church.

Lady Aliena’s life of luxury is brutally overturned by the political climate. Her struggle to re-establish a place in society and restore her brother to his inheritance is constantly thwarted by William Hamleigh. William’s violent cruelty is protected by his position as the son of an earl, his usefulness to the scheming Bishop Waleran and his service to the king.

It’s a complex story. A medieval tapestry weave. A must read.

http://www.ken-follett.com/

those who come after

by Elisabeth Holdsworth

Picador. Australian, history. Hardcover RRP $29.99

Juliana Stolburg is an Australian woman who has travelled the world as an intelligence specialist for NATO. She has now come to the end of her amazing career and looks forward to what will follow. Juliana’s life has been eventful and drawing from her colourful family background, past and present, she relates to the audience how she has arrived at where she is now.

From Middelburg in the Netherlands to a farm outside of Goulburn, the life of this diplomat has come to a fork in middle age. Juliana is looking at living with her husband, Oscar, on his mother’s farm in Goulburn – that is until Oscar meets Frederick. Her last living relative, Lady Katrien, has died and Juliana is left the surviving family jewels and a small castle, Buitenrust, surrounded by German bunkers in Middelburg. She must travel back to her ancestral home to sort out the paperwork and decide what is to be. Oscar and Frederick decide to tag along.

Juliana is the narrator of her story and we meet her titled famous family and travel along with them on their journey through two wars, floods and droughts - her Jewish mother who is tortured in Dachau and survives to live a strange existence; her eccentric father who loves his daughter and wife but also his motorbike and his job. When Juliana’s father’s parents die he decides the best course of action is to take his precious family to Australia, a warmer place, a place where they can mend their bodies and minds.

those who come after is slow to start but soon you are caught up in this marvellous mismatched group of characters and the surprises keep happening. There is no hero or heroine. There is no suspense. Instead there is one wonderful woman’s story.

http://eholdsworth.com/

The Heroes of the Kokoda Track

by Nicolas Brasch

black dog books. History, Junior non-fiction, Australian. Paperback RRP $16.99

The Kokoda Track is an important part of Australian history. You may all know of the hard ache and problems that accompanied the men that fought along the track. But The Heroes of the Kokoda Track is more about the history of why the track was so important and why our troops were sent to Papua New Guinea.

In this fascinating and richly illustrated book, there are lots of visuals to keep a young mind interested.

I think the title is a bit misleading as it isn’t all about the men who braved the track but more about the local area and the topography and the elements these men had to face. The locals who played a key role in keeping the Australian men alive.

If the first text box on the first page doesn’t get you interested then you must have already walked the track.

‘Try this… Put six bricks into a backpack, and climb the steepest hill you can find. But don’t do it until it’s been raining for days, so you keep slipping. Now don’t make a sound because in the bushes around you, there might be enemy troops, armed with rifles and bayonets, poised to pounce at the slightest sign of activity. Then imagine this is no game, this is reality, this is war – this is Kokoda.’

Every Australian school library should have this book proudly displayed on their shelves.

The Reading Stack reviewed Nicolas Brasch’s Gallipoli. Reckless Valour in May 2009.

Christina’s Matilda

by Edel Wignell, illustrated by Elizabeth Botté

IP Kidz. Australian, History, Children, Picture. Hardcover RRP $26.00

Everyone knows (or should know) who wrote the words to Waltzing Matilda – Banjo Paterson. But who wrote the music?

Christina’s Matilda is the story of Christina Macpherson, a woman born to a wealthy family in Victoria in 1864. Her story is interesting, not only in relation to the famous song but her family were the last people to be held to ransom by Mad Dog Morgan.

When Christina’s mother died, she moved up to Queensland to be with her brothers and father on their large property, Dagworth. In the early 1900’s Christina met up with an old school friend, Sarah Riley who was engaged to Banjo Paterson. They spent many evenings entertaining with songs and poetry and readings.

Over the course of one such evening Christina played a tune by ear that she had heard at a race and Banjo started to write the words. The two spent the evening collaborating and ended up with the first verse of Waltzing Matilda.

But Christina was not recognised as the original composer when the publisher organised for another woman, Mary Cowan, to create a tune to go to the words. It wasn’t until 1983 that Christina Macpherson was acknowledged for her part in the history of the song.

This is a fascinating story where the use of historical photographs brings the story of the swagman to life. Australia has a wonderful and colourful history and Christina’s Matilda is a great book to read, to look at, and to learn from.

The Reading Stack reviewed Elizabeth Botté’s The Giggle Gum Tree in August 2009.

http://www.edelwignell.com.au/
http://www.coroflot.com/minium

the body in the clouds

by Ashley Hay

Allen and Unwin. Australian, Fiction, History. Paperback RRP $29.99


Three men, three different times, one thing in common – Dawes Point in Sydney and what they all see from that one special spot.

Second Lieutenant William Dawes arrives in New South Wales in the late 1700s ready to explore the sky from a world away from the cultured life in England. Here in Sydney Cove there are tales of savages and animals that are larger than alligators. But Dawes sits on an outcrop and dreams of his observatory where he can lie and watch the magnificent and beautiful bright blue and white sky so different from the dreary grey colours on the other side of the globe.

Ted Parker, a young man looking for work in the 1930s, dreaming of becoming a part of the construction of the magnificent structure that will soon become the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Ted sits near Dawes Point and watches with envy as the workers climbing all over the metal curves. Ted soon finds a job on the barge underneath the workers – he is happy, he is part of the ‘team’. But he still dreams of sitting on top of the world.

Dan Kopek is an expat from Australia working as a banker in London. He hasn’t been home for over ten years. It is the 21st century and the other side of the world isn’t that far anymore but Dan finds it hard to get home – to see his mother, his neighbour, best friend Charlie and Charlie’s grandfather who was Charlie’s only living relative and who also took Dan in as well. Charlie is a famous photographer and she has a special spot for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, because that’s where her grandfather flew, the only man to survive falling from the bridge whilst it was being constructed. Dan sees Charlie’s photograph advertising Sydney in the London Tube and feels it may be time to go home.

All three men are attached to Dawes Point. And what they all see - is something or someone falling from the sky. Is it part of their belief in what is real and what isn’t or is it that all three men have a bond with each other through time.

The body in the clouds is a wonderful story, a little bit of history, a little bit of a love story - with a surprising twist at the end.

http://www.ashleyhay.com.au/

Utopian Man

by Lisa Lang

Allen and Unwin. Australian, History. Paperback RRP $23.99

Utopian Man is the story of the real life eccentric entrepreneur Edward Cole told with a dash of Lang’s imagination.

Edward Cole was a man of vision. A vision that every man, woman and child could come to a place to relax and read – where trees would grow, bands played, Chinese tea served and animals romped. This vision was realised in the late 1800’s in the heart of Melbourne, where Edward William Cole created Cole’s Book Arcade.

This man was so forward thinking that he advertised for a wife in the newspaper and ended up marrying Eliza eight weeks later. This marriage was a good, faithful and happy one with five children being brought into the world. Eliza and Edward were married until death separated them.

Cole’s vision flourished but then a series of events nearly led to his downfall – the death of his youngest, the recession, his fraternising with Chinese and blacks, séances, opium dens, corruption within parliament and amongst his friends. Cole survived but only just.

Utopian Man may be an imaginary tale but Lisa Lang has brought the 1800’s to life. I looked up more on Edward William Cole after reading this book and found that he was a fascinating man and Utopian Man is a fascinating story. Corruption, lust, drugs – it has it all!

Empire of Silver

by Conn Iggulden

Harper Collins. Australia, Historical Fiction, Paperback, rrp $32.99

Reviewed by Sandy Fussell

 

Empire of Silver is the fourth book in the historical Conqueror series which tells the story of the Great Khan, Genghis, and his descendants.

The Mongol Empire has been at peace for two years and Ogedai, Genghis’ youngest son, has forsaken the tribes’ nomadic ways to build a great white city on the plains. Internal and external threats arise to shatter the peace. Ogedai’s elder brother Chagatai believes he should be the Great Khan and does not agree with the changes his brother has made. While the brilliant and loyal General Tsubodai cuts thr

ough Russia, crushing the Templar Knights and devastating the Hungarian kingdom, the Song dynasty, ancient Chinese enemy of the Mongols, grows stronger.

Ogedai survives every challenge except the frailty of a weak heart. Suddenly everything is in jeopardy – his son, city, his general and his expansion plans. As Iggulden comments in his Historical Note appendix:

“There are not many moments in history when the death of a single man changed the entire world. Ogedai’s death was such a moment. If he had lived, there would have been no Elizabethan age, no British Empire, no Renaissance, perhaps no Industrial revolution. In such circumstances, this book could very well have been written in Mongolian or Chinese.”

History lovers will relish Iggulden’s comments on how he dealt with the empty corners of historical record by carefully blending fact and its logical fictional derivative.

This is an epic series, a sweeping saga of triumph and tragedy. I waited impatiently for Empire of Silver and now am waiting equally impatiently for the fifth instalment.

http://www.conniggulden.com/

The Poison Diaries

by Maryrose Wood
Based on a concept by the Duchess of Northumberland

Harper Collins Publishers. History, Mystery, Crime, Fantasy, Romance. Paperback rrp $19.99


Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Jessamine Luxton’s father, Thomas, is an apothecary in 18th century England. He is renowned throughout the area, so famous that the local Duke of Alnwick Castle has given him Hulne Abbey to live rent free so long as he tends the locals with their ailments. But Thomas Luxton couldn’t save his own wife and when the time comes he will not be able to save Jessamine.

Thomas agrees to employ Weed, an orphan boy who was working in a mental institution until his ‘special tea’ interfered with business by appearing to cure patients. Weed seems to know a lot more about the healing powers of plants than Thomas does. Could Weed assist Thomas with his desire to know all about the good and evil of plants? But Weed is a strange lad who doesn’t speak and likes to stay underground and in the dark.

With Jessamine’s help and patience, Weed changes and opens his heart and mind. Soon a love develops between the two and that is when the plants from the poisonous garden Thomas Luxton has locked away, begin to wield their magic.

Jessamine is betrothed to Weed but on her engagement night she becomes ill and Thomas and Weed have no idea how to save her. Weed is drawn to the poisonous garden and sets on a quest to save his beloved.

Weed has a special knowledge of plants and seems to be able to talk to them – or do they talk to him? What would it be like to be able to talk to the plants and flowers? The Poison Diaries is a tale of mystery, intrigue and magic with a plot that takes Weed, Jessamine and Thomas on a journey into their own hidden agendas. A wonderful story that will make you look at nature differently.

http://www.maryrosewood.com/

The Duchess of Northumberland lives in the real Alnwick Castle (also used as the set for Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter movies) and tends her own garden including the Poison Garden. You can view both the castle and the garden at these web sites http://www.alnwickcastle.com/ and http://www.alnwickgarden.com/.

Fatal Tango

by Wolfram Fleischhauer

Pan Macmillan Australia. Mystery, Romance, History. Paperback rrp $32.99

Set across two countries, Germany and Argentina, Fatal Tango is the story of lovers who try to defy their births and their history, to be together.

Giulietta Battin is a ballerina in the corps of the Berlin Opera Company. Damian Alsina is an Argentinian tango extraordinaire who is touring Germany. Giulietta is preparing herself for a new piece Tango Suite and wants to learn more about the dance of the tango and its music. Two people, different worlds, destined to collide.

Their passionate affair awakens Giulietta to the wonderful world of the tango and a man she has completely fallen in love with. But her dominating father is not happy and when Giulietta arrives home to her flat to find her father bound and gagged and Damian gone, she is devastated.

Desperate to find Damien, Giulietta takes flight to Argentina but what she discovers is a country lost and in despair.

Everyone Giulietta meets warns her to stay away from Damian or el loco (crazy), as the locals call him, but she knows there is something important in his unusual dance style and has started to interpret what he has been trying to say through dance.

Fatal Tango is about the tango, attraction and the political history of a country run by a cruel dictatorship. A fantastic story.

http://www.wolfram-fleischhauer.com/

The Fool’s Girl

by Celia Rees

Allen and Unwin. Young Adult, History, Mystery. Paperback rrp $16.99

The year is 1601 and playwright William Shakespeare is finding fame at the Globe Theatre in London. He discovers a talented street performer with a very unusual assistant. Violetta is from Illyria and has come to England to seek something that is rightfully hers. She is accompanied by her faithful servant Feste, who is both a Fool and a gifted actor.

Violetta and Feste have escaped slavery and with Will’s help hope to see their beloved country again. But Venice and other countries want the popular trading port of Illyria as their own. The self-appointed Duke of Illyria is a tyrant who will do nothing to stop Violetta, the true heir, from returning to her country. He has ensured others will assist in not only her demise but that of anyone who aids her journey.

Violetta would rather die than not take the country’s sacred relic back with her. With dark tales of deception and intricate subplots, the reader never knows who to trust. And Violetta is finding that her trust may not be aimed at the right person.

The Fool’s Girl is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and explores what happens after the play’s final curtain has been dropped. Rees has seamlessly morphed a much–loved historical play into a dramatic story that transports the reader to a time of pirates, the plague, sorcery, beheadings, treachery and more.

http://www.celiarees.com/

Tallow

The Curse of the Bond Riders 1
by Karen Brooks

Random House Australia Books. Historical Fantasy, Young Adult, Australia. Paperback rrp $ 27.95

From the very first page my heart raced with the Bond Rider as he fled along the Limen borderland, chased by the Morte Whispers. When he threw the swaddled baby through the mist and into a confused peasant’s arms, this reader hurtled headlong into the world of La Serenissima too.

Tallow grows up to become apprentice to the candlemaker, Pillar. But Tallow is not like other children and when the extent of this difference was finally revealed, I was caught completely unaware. I don’t want to spoil the many such twists and turns but I can tell you this much: Tallow is an Estrattore, able to extract and transfer feelings from people and animals around him. The Estrattore were supposedly all wiped out in a religious purge and Tallow is only safe in hiding. But with adolescence, it is not so easy to control his increasing Estrattore talents and feelings seep into the candles he makes. People start to ask dangerous questions.

When Katrina, another Bond Rider, arrives from the Limen to help train Tallow, his world falls apart at a breath-catching pace. It is hard to tell who is friend and who is foe. And who might have changed sides. Tallow has to grow up quickly and the process is a painful one. It will cost belief, friendship and the promise of true love.

Tallow’s world has a marvellous medieval feel, alien but familiar. Serenissima is old world Venice in another time and much darker place. I could see myself walking the streets, loitering in the market square and boating on the canals. But the mists of the Limen and the over-the-sea court of the Queen of Farrowfare are lands of pure imagination.

The narrative switches from third person to first person through Tallow’s eyes. Interestingly I found that this did not make me feel any particular empathy with Tallow. The greater story of politics, myth and prophecy is as riveting as the personal struggles of the main character. Tallow is a story of great complexity and scope and as a reader I wanted to view it from a distance, from the widest possible angle. I suspect another reader might react differently. This is a book of many layers open to many perspectives.

Although a substantial C format (larger size) paperback of 411 pages, I looked up only once - because I had to sleep, work and feed the family. But as soon as I could I returned to Tallow and I didn’t look up again until the very last page. Now I am eagerly awaiting Votive, the second book in the series.

http://www.karenrbrooks.com/

In Lonnie’s Shadow

by Chrissie Michaels

Ford Street Publishing. Young Adult, Australian, History. Paperback, rrp $19.95


Lonnie McGuinness is a young lad living in the slums of Melbourne in 1891. He is a boy with a heart that keeps getting him into trouble. From his love for his boss’s daughter to the love for his mother and the two girls who are his mates, Daisy a Salvation Army worker and Pearl a worker of the streets. Whatever Lonnie does, he always ends up in trouble.

In Lonnie’s Shadow tells the tale of one young man’s struggle to overcome poverty, depression, disease and the street gangs he is surrounded by.

Beginning with a break-and-enter to retrieve something that was not rightfully taken in Lonnie’s eyes, every step is purposeful ... to set things right. Lonnie is always looking out for those more unfortunate than himself. He never sees himself as a victim although he wonders often why he can’t rise above the slush that surrounds his feet. But when Pearl goes missing and Daisy’s past gradually comes to light, the only way for Lonnie to help is to participate in an illegal horse race to win the money that will raise all three of them from the depths of their horrid world.

This book is a historical tale that will appeal to teenagers. Gangs, abortion, illegal races, and unrequited love – it’s all in here.

A powerful story that will keep a twenty-first century kid not only engaged, but might just stimulate an interest in stories of the past.

http://sites.google.com/site/chrissiemichaelsorg/

The Holy Thief

by William Ryan

Pan MacMillan Australia. Crime, Mystery, History. Paperback rrp $32.99

A woman’s mutilated body is found displayed on an altar in a Christian church in Moscow in 1936. An ear, eye and her tongue have been placed in such a way to spell a warning. Is it the work of a deranged madman or is it something more sinister? Captain Alexei Korolev is asked to investigate. Korolev soon discovers the woman was an American citizen tortured to death. It appears she never told her captive the secrets he wanted to hear. Can Korolev discover them?

Then a second body is discovered. The body of a Russian Thief. He also had been tortured but it seems his secrets passed his lips. He was lucky and died quickly with a bullet. What do a thief and a young American woman have in common?

When the theft of a rare religious icon is brought to Korolev’s attention, he realises that the murder investigation has uncovered a criminal mastermind at work. More and more bodies start to pile up and Korolev may need a miracle to save himself.

In the harsh reality of a Stalin run Russia, everybody fears something. What does Korolev fear and should someone higher up fear Korolev?

A wonderful tale of murder, deceit and 1930’s Russia. The Holy Thief is the first in a series of cases and adventures for Alexei Korolev. Once you read this book you will be queuing for the next instalment.

With a Sword in My Hand

by Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem & Pat van Biers (translated by John Nieuwenhuizen)

Allen and Unwin, Young Adult, History, paperback rrp $17.99

With a Sword in My Hand tells the story of Marguerite Van Male, fourteen-year-old heiress to the County of Flanders. It is a rich historical narrative of 13th century France with Marguerite’s life dictated by the demands of church versus state, county and castle politics and the arrival of The Plague.

Marguerite’s life isn’t easy despite her privileged position in society. Her mother, suffering the mental and physical strain of failing to produce a male heir, has been sent to rest in a Convent. Marguerite is left in the castle, with her governess and a father who has little patience for the daughter whose birth he sees as the beginning of his bad luck.

Marguerite doesn’t want to be a princess, learning embroidery with her ladies. She is bold, brave and adventurous, roaming the fields playing pranks with the boys and secretly learning to use a sword. Her father becomes increasingly frustrated by his daughter’s wilful behaviour and arranges a marriage to Prince Edward of England. Marguerite refuses to do as she is told and conspires to arrange a marriage of her own choosing.

Father and daughter stand against each other, sword in hand. Ironically Marguerite and her father cannot see they are more similar than different. Flanders has no prince and needs a strong ruler. Feisty Marguerite might be the answer to her father’s prayers after all.
Regardless of how much I enjoy a book, I rarely feel the need for a sequel. But this time is different. I can’t let go of Marguerite’s story.

Alice I have been

by Melanie Benjamin

Harper Collins. History. Paperback, rrp $32.99


With the new Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland movie recently released, this is a timely book for the adults.

Alice I have been is the fictional story of Alice Liddell, the muse of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Alice was the Dean of Oxford’s middle daughter and seven years old when Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, begins telling her the story of Alice’s Adventures Underground. Alice pleaded with him to write it down. For the young Alice Liddell, Mr Dodgson, the stuttering mathematics professor, was her escape from learning. He took Alice and her two sisters on many wonderful excursions around Oxford, keeping them amused with his imaginary tales.

But what happened when Alice grew up? What is the story of the real Alice and her relationship with the much older Mr Dodgson?

All evidence of what happened to the friendship between Lewis Carroll and the Liddell family has been destroyed however Melanie Benjamin has drawn her own conclusions from research to create a wonderful, sometimes painful, story of Alice Liddell.

The real Alice does grow up. She marries and has three boys but tragedy follows her entire life. As she reflects on her life she realises Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about her and that she will never grow up.

I loved this book although I wondered occasionally where the line between fact and fiction might have been blurred. Nevertheless, this book will make you look at the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with new and very wide open eyes!

The Devil’s Tears

by Steven Horne

Pan Macmillan Australia. Australian, Adult Fiction, History. Paperback rrp $32.99

This is a book I particularly didn’t want to read as the modern history of the Timor people is horrific. I thought the book would be a good read for my husband but he was busy with something else. So I opened The Devil’s Tears and started to read. I found I couldn’t stop.

While Cesar da Silva’s story is fiction, it could so easily be true. In fact I am sure there are many real life versions to be found. It’s eerie and unsettling. Reality is sometimes only a few steps away from historical fiction.

When the civil war comes to Timor, Cesar, his wife Helena, and their three young daughters, try to escape the country of their birth. But luck is not with them and Cesar is separated from his wife and two of his daughters. With no other option and the belief that his family are dead, Cesar and his daughter, Ana, finally arrive on Australian shores.

For close to twenty-five years Cesar and Ana create a life in Australia, whilst Helena endures a life that no-one could ever want. Although Helena is not dead she wishes she was. She and her two daughters live a life of poverty and degradation, surrounded by tragedy. Helena believes Cesar and her other daughter are dead and with a sadistic warlord stalking her and her daughters, she tries to hide and scrape together a miserable life.

When Abby and David, an Australian journalist and photographer, visit the killing fields of Timor, they become entwined in the da Silva family story.

The Devil’s Tears is an important book. Although fiction, eyes will be opened to the plight of the people of Timor. A moving book of love, loss, anguish, mystery and crime. The only time you will put it down is when you have turned the last page. Brilliant.

http://www.stevenhorne.com.au/

The Story of Danny Dunn

by Bryce Courtenay

Penguin. Australian, History, Adult Other. Hardback rrp $49.95

Danny Dunn was born in 1920 on the shirt tails of the great depression. His parents run a pub in Balmain and Danny is the local boy who might just get out of the slum and go places. By the time he is eighteen he has everything - good looks, brains, a beautiful and intelligent girlfriend, Helen, and the possibility he might play football for Australia or go to the Olympics representing water polo.

Then World War 2 comes.

Danny’s mother comes from hard working Irish stock and wants to see her son get a University degree. The first in the family. Danny is torn between fighting for his country and finishing his degree to ensure his mother’s dream is fulfilled. To keep his mother happy Danny agrees to finish his degree. But with only a few months left, Danny follows his heart and signs up.

Life for Danny changes dramatically when he is captured at the Fall of Singapore and becomes a prisoner of war working on the Burma Railway. He must constantly fight for his mates’ welfare and his own life. When the war ends Danny returns to Balmain a very different man, both physically and mentally.

The love of his life, Helen, is still waiting and Danny begins to reshape himself. With twin daughters, Sam and Gabby, the Dunn family is complete. But Danny’s demons are always near the surface.
To date I haven’t been a big fan of Bryce Courtenay but the 600 plus pages of The Story of Danny Dunn was something that I could not put down. Three generations through three wars, dramas, ambitions, politics, religion, racism, love. This is a story that will keep you turning the pages long after you want to shut your eyes and go to sleep.
If you have trouble buying a present for a parent, grandparent or great grandparent (or in my case father-in-law), this is perfect. The story contains so much wonderful graphic detail that sometimes I had to remind myself I was reading a fictional story and not a biography. Brilliant!

http://www.brycecourtenay.com/

Heart’s Blood

by Juliet Marillier

Pan Macmillan. Australian, Romance, History, Mystery, Fantasy. Paperback rrp $32.99

A few months after her father’s death, Caitrin, daughter of Berach, is fleeing from the family home in Market Cross. Her mother died years before and her sister has married a wandering minstrel and left to be with her new husband. Distant kin have moved in and they torment Caitrin, depleting her strength with fists and words. Anything is better than staying in her home.

Caitrin travels as far away as possible to the strange fortress of Whistling Tor and its even stranger chieftain, Anluan. Despite villagers warning of the disappearances of local folk, the ghostly beings that surround the forests of the Tor and the odd assortment of staff who serve Whistling Tor, Caitrin accepts a position for the summer to translate and scribe the unusual books that are Anluan’s history.

While getting back her self esteem and letting her body heal from the wounds of her kin, Caitrin realises that Whistling Tor and its occupants are not as they seem. What is the Host and who controls it? Is Caitrin the only one who can save the lost souls of the Host? And what is the dark and powerful force that tries to stop Caitrin and Anluan from finding the answers?

This is a tale that has been referred to as the re-telling of the classic tale Beauty and the Beast - it contains the same elements and characters but is more dark and oppressive. At the same time it is still a wonderful story of sorcery, deception, curses, challenges, ghosts and love. I didn’t want it to end.

Juliet Marillier’s Heir to Sevenwaters was reviewed by the Reading Stack in Issue 15.

http://www.julietmarillier.com/