AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Eliza Grayling, born in Sydney when the colony itself was still an infant, has lived there all her thirty-two years. Too tall, too stern—too old, now—for marriage, she lives by herself, looking in on her reclusive father in case he has injured himself while drunk. There is a shadow in his past, she knows. Something obsessive. Something to do with a man who bested him thirty-three years ago.
'Then Srinivas, another figure from that dark past, offers Joshua Grayling the chance for a reckoning with his nemesis. Eliza is horrified. The plan entails a sea voyage far to the south and an uncertain, possibly violent, outcome. Insanity for a helpless drunkard who also happens to be blind.
'Unable to dissuade her father from his mad quest, Eliza begins to understand she may be forced to go with him. Then she sees the ship they will be sailing on. And in that instant, the voyage of the Moonbird becomes Eliza's mission too.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
A Ripping Adults’-own Adventure
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 24 October 2020; (p. 16)
— Review of The Burning Island 2020 single work novel'Eliza Grayling is tall, capable, smart. It is 1830, so tall, capable, smart aligns with unmarriageable. Never mind. She is happy enough being thought about in Sydney Town as the tall spinster. She lives alone, in rather slatternly style, and earns her living teaching some appealing young children. She is also looking out for her father, blind and alcoholic, who lives alone on the edge of the bush.' (Introduction)
-
Island Wives : A Nuanced and Protean Novel
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 424 2020; (p. 38)
— Review of The Burning Island 2020 single work novel'Criminal lawyer turned crime/thriller writer Jock Serong has produced five highly successful novels in as many years. His latest, The Burning Island, is probably his most ambitious to date. Set in 1830, it is part revenge tale, part mystery, part historical snapshot of the Furneaux Islands in Bass Strait, in particular the relationship between European settlers and Indigenous women, who became their ‘island wives’, or tyereelore. It is also the moving story of a daughter’s devotion to her father, with a cracking denouement reminiscent of an Hercule Poirot mystery.' (Introduction)
-
Island Wives : A Nuanced and Protean Novel
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 424 2020; (p. 38)
— Review of The Burning Island 2020 single work novel'Criminal lawyer turned crime/thriller writer Jock Serong has produced five highly successful novels in as many years. His latest, The Burning Island, is probably his most ambitious to date. Set in 1830, it is part revenge tale, part mystery, part historical snapshot of the Furneaux Islands in Bass Strait, in particular the relationship between European settlers and Indigenous women, who became their ‘island wives’, or tyereelore. It is also the moving story of a daughter’s devotion to her father, with a cracking denouement reminiscent of an Hercule Poirot mystery.' (Introduction)
-
A Ripping Adults’-own Adventure
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 24 October 2020; (p. 16)
— Review of The Burning Island 2020 single work novel'Eliza Grayling is tall, capable, smart. It is 1830, so tall, capable, smart aligns with unmarriageable. Never mind. She is happy enough being thought about in Sydney Town as the tall spinster. She lives alone, in rather slatternly style, and earns her living teaching some appealing young children. She is also looking out for her father, blind and alcoholic, who lives alone on the edge of the bush.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2022 shortlisted Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History
- 2021 winner HNSA Historical Novel Prize — Adult
- 2020 shortlisted Staunch Book Prize
