This book puts you right there, and makes you think - what would I have done in the same situation? Following the lives of an early settler family in Australia, William Thornhill is keen to claim a patch of ground and start building a new life for himself and his family. But the uneasy relationship with the aborigine natives means nothing can be settled until drastic action is taken. A novel which examines attitudes from an historical age, but with intensity and vividness that makes them real for the reader today.
They sat together with their pannikins of tea on a bench outside the hut. Blackwood had picked a sweet spot, with the grass spreading under the trees, the lagoon glinting in the sun at a distance, and the birds carolling near the corn patch. He had made himself comfortable.
