I very much enjoyed Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett, a debut Australian author. The novel is set on the coast of southern Tasmania in about 1980s. Three brothers, Joe, Miles and Harry deal with their embittered father as he tries to make a living fishing for abalone. Joe had left the family and had been living with his grandfather until his recent death, leaving Miles and Harry with Dad. There is a mystery as to what happened to their mother, killed in a car crash. Teenagers Joe and Miles surf to escape their unhappy lives and 8 year-old Harry potters about on the shore. He eventually befriends a recluse, George, who has a lovable dog. There are fearful undercurrents in this story and the reader is tossed around on this sea anxiously awaiting the outcome, so difficult to put down as we want to learn the fate of these boys, yet dread to. This book was reviewed on First Tuesday Book Club this week. A hauntingly powerful novel. 41/2/5
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Past the Shallows
I very much enjoyed Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett, a debut Australian author. The novel is set on the coast of southern Tasmania in about 1980s. Three brothers, Joe, Miles and Harry deal with their embittered father as he tries to make a living fishing for abalone. Joe had left the family and had been living with his grandfather until his recent death, leaving Miles and Harry with Dad. There is a mystery as to what happened to their mother, killed in a car crash. Teenagers Joe and Miles surf to escape their unhappy lives and 8 year-old Harry potters about on the shore. He eventually befriends a recluse, George, who has a lovable dog. There are fearful undercurrents in this story and the reader is tossed around on this sea anxiously awaiting the outcome, so difficult to put down as we want to learn the fate of these boys, yet dread to. This book was reviewed on First Tuesday Book Club this week. A hauntingly powerful novel. 41/2/5
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