This novel tells two parallel stories: one of three eccentric Englishmen who set sail for Tasmania to find the garden of Eden; the other of a young Tasmanian aborigine and his tribe, struggling against the invading British, who prove as lethal in their good intentions as in their cruelty.

Found this one on a second hand book stall in the Surry Hills markets.

Borrowed from feryl during one of my frequent book droughts (why am I the only one whose Mount TBR suffers from catastrophic erosion??).

I was quite interested in the story of the Tasmanian aborigines, which the author claims to have researched fairly thoroughly. It seems that our ancestors were not just bigoted and scared, they were pretty damn stupid as well. Putting signs on the trees for the tribes to read? Good grief!

The rest of the story was quite fun, though it dragged quite a bit at times. Good enough that I bought another book by the same author when I found it at the evil bookshop, not so good that I'd read it again.

Feryl, do you want this back or should I release it tonight?

miss-jo returned this one to me at the meetup at The Australian Hotel in The Rocks tonight.

My flatmate just read this one and said she really enjoyed it. I'll hang on to this one to read in the holidays (having just commenced full-time study, my reading for pleasure is going to have to be seriously cut down!).

I haven't read this one but the bookshelf needs decluttering so it's going travelling! It will be deposited on the book swap shelves upstairs.