A wish list book for ApoloniaX

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

sending on its way today

Thank you so much for this book, Dancesports!!! Looking forward to read it!

Matthew Kneale (born 24 November 1960) is a British writer, best known for his 2000 novel English Passengers, which won the prestigious Whitbread Book Award and was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He studied Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, and afterwards spent a year in Japan, when he began writing. He now lives in Italy.
Kneale is the son of the writers Nigel Kneale and Judith Kerr. His other novels include Whore Banquets (1987 - winner of the 1988 Somerset Maugham Award, which was also won by his father in 1950; republished in 2002 as Mr. Foreigner), Inside Rose's Kingdom (1989), Sweet Thames (1992 - winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), and When We Were Romans (2008). In 2004, he released the short story collection Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance. English Passengers was also shortlisted for Australia's Miles Franklin Award in 2000, making Kneale the first non-Australian author to be shortlisted for the award.

Plot summary
In 1857, after their attempts to smuggle contraband goods land them with a heavy fine from the British Customs, Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his crew of Manx sailors are forced to offer their ship for charter. The vessel is quickly hired by a party of Englishmen headed by an eccentric Vicar, the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, who believes that the Garden of Eden is located in Tasmania and wants to mount an expedition there to find it. However, unbeknownst to the clergyman, one of his fellow travellers has an entirely different reason for journeying to the island. Dr Thomas Potter is a renowned surgeon who is developing a thesis on the races of man and hopes to find some interesting specimens there.
Running parallel with this story, but starting some 30 or so years earlier, are the recollections of Peevay, one of Tasmania's natives, who describes the devastating impact the white settlers had on his people, and the aborigines' struggle to adapt to the cultural changes which were forced on them.
Many of the chapters alternate between the two different time periods, but when the Manx ship eventually docks in Tasmania, both strands of the story are brought together for the book's conclusion.

(Wikipedia)

I enjoyed this book tremendously! It really took concentration and sometimes it was quite a challenge – at ~460 pages. It is told from countless perspectives – that could indeed be confusing, but never is, each voice is so unique, so distinct, it is a fascinating way of storytelling. The book also comprises many genres, it is a seafaring adventure as well as historical fiction, and at the same time an important tale of colonial imperialism, of genocide and racism. There are so many aspects, but still it is a single coherent story. The story itself is fictional, but it’s obvious that thorough research went into it – all the background information is correct. See here. Sometimes the writing even moves a bit to comedy, sometimes to tragedy, but it never goes off balance. Great book!

Int'l Bookray:
- mafarrimond, UK, ship EU
- ruzena, Finland, ship int'l
- zinat1, D
- souram, Switzerland ... continued below, see journal entry no. 17

The usual:
- Someone will PM you for your address, PM them back and provide your address
- When you receive the book, please make a journal entry letting everyone know that you received it
- Please try to finish it within three months
- When the end is in sight, check the book's journal and PM the next person to get their address
- Make another journal entry and let everyone know what you thought of the book
- Make release notes to let everyone know that it's in the mail
- Send the book to the next person on the list
- Last person: Would you ray it forward???
If delayed make sure to let us know so that the ray will not stop.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Travelling to mafarrimond.
Happy reading! Hope you enjoy it.

The book has arrived safely today. I have a few books to read ahead of it but I will get around to it very soon.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the historical elements. So many different voices used to tell the story required quite a bit of concentration at first. The epilogue rounded the story up nicely. Thank you for sharing.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posting to ruzena as next in line for the book ring.

Arrived today. Thank you!

It was quite a big adventure, and more. Much of the story is based on true history, but the author does not load the narration by tiring facts but, instead, shows the events by action-packed storytelling. Here Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley is the best! I always waited to hear his voice and to learn what kind of farce had met him and his brave crew.

The Reverend Wilson was most tragicomic in his search for the Garden of Eden. A more tragic case was Dr. Potter and his scientific work. As the serious standpoint, the English passengers were representatives of the cultural and religious imperialism and the true violence that was used by colonial conquerors of the time. The Tasmanian natives are not approached too idealistic by the author, either.

Matthew Kneale is the son of two writers (Nigel Kneale and Judith Kerr). I guess that makes a challenge to the career. The result here is stunning. The author uses numerous narrators and two separate time lines, and describes the life and habits of most different groups and communities, and even creates peculiar means of expression; but the reader is never lost. The structure of the book is like a big crossword where everything fits. A fine work!

Thank you all for sharing and recycling.

-ruzena

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off we go!

The passengers arrived in Germany today. Thanx for sending it and the lovely bookmark! I'll do my very best to read it soon!

14.08.2010
Very hard to read although I love Australia and was very interested in the story, it took me quite a long time to dive in!
BUT - it was worth the time! I loved it!

"English Passengers" arrived in Switzerland today, thanks zinat1 !

I liked this book.

New list:
- E-sr, Spain (prefers to mail the book inside Europe)
- bookmaniac70, Bulgarie (prefers to mail the book inside Europe)
- akosikulot, Philippines (prefers to post local / Asia, international if needed)

As bookmaniac70 prefers to mail the book within Europe, I re-organize the list (it's still possible to change if other bookcrossers are interested):
- akosikulot, Philippines (prefers local/Asia but agrees internationally if needed)
- E-sr, Spain (preferences, within Europe)
- bookmaniac70, Bulgaria (preferences, within Europe)

Sent to akosikulot, Philippines.

Bienvenue dans le bookcrossing !
Welcome to bookcrossing !

Bookcrossing=faire voyager des livres. Gratuit et anonyme.
Bookcrossing=make the whole world a library, help books to travel. Free and anonymous.

Ouvert à tout le monde / open to everyone.

Donnez votre avis, écrivez une entrée-journal en entrant le code BCID du livre sur www.bookcrossing.com.
Tell your opinion, write a journal entry; to do it, enter BCID code of the book on www.bookcrossing.com.

Pour libérer vos livres, rejoignez "join" le bookcrossing, enregistrez votre livre, il recevra un BCID, et libérez-le ensuite.
To release your own books, join bookcrossing, register the book you want to release, it will automatically get a BCID, and release the book afterwards.

See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/souram
Voyez les livres que j'ai libérés à l'adresse ci-dessus

Merci, thanks, thank you
souram

Received from souram - with a postcard! Thank you so much. :) Looking forward to starting off the second half of this book's bookray journey!

On its way to E-sr in Spain - enjoy the book! :)