In the mid-1840s a thirteen-year-old British cabin boy, Gemmy Fairley, is cast ashore in the far north of Austrailia and taken in by aborigines. Sixteen years later he moves back into the world of Europeans, among hopeful yet terrified settlers who are staking out their small patch of home in an alien place. To them, Gemmy stands as a different kind of challenge: he is a force tht at once fascinates and repels. His own identity in this new world is as unsettling to him as the knowledge he brings to others of the savage, the aboriginal.

Received as the result of a PaperBackSwap.com trade.

Is a book on my "Literature, Arts and Medicine" reading list. I really liked this book. I liked the way the characters were developed and the descriptions of life and the land were very vivid.

Geishabird has agreed to do a trade with me, so I will be sending this off to Canada this coming Saturday. Thank you for sharing with me!

Very real, and very thought-provoking.

Posted 4/8/06 to geishabird. Thank you for trading with me!!

Received...thank you! I got it on Friday, actually, but what with the big BC convention this weekend right here in my very own hometown (whee!) I've just now been able to journal it. Thank you very much! I look forward to the read.

Very moving, very beautifully written book. Richly developed characters and insights into them which are at times almost painful to read; these are characters you can't pass by lightly - you are drawn into their minds and their lives. Reminded me in some ways of Thomas Keneally's The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith - the same fish-out-of-water story set against the background of the Australian aboriginee/settler conflict. Lovely book; thank you for sharing.

RELEASE NOTES:

Bringing it to the Meetup!

Caught at the meet-up. Looking forward to reading it.

Left in the Little Free Library by the Tim Horton's.