Wresting his family from the easy living of nineteenth–century Sydney, Cornelius Laffey takes them to northern Queensland where thousands of hopefuls are digging for gold in the mud. They confront the horror of Aboriginal dispossession, and Cornelius is sacked for reporting the slaughter. This is an unforgettable tale of the other side of Australia’s heritage.
Thea Astley was one of Australia’s most respected and acclaimed novelists. Born in Brisbane in 1925, Astley studied arts at the University of Queensland. She held a position as Fellow in Australian Literature at Macquarie University until 1980, when she retired to write full time. In 1989 she was granted an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Queensland.
She won the Miles Franklin Award four times – in 1962 for The Well Dressed Explorer, in 1965 for The Slow Natives, in 1972 for The Acolyte and in 2000 for Drylands. In 1989 she won the Patrick White Award. Other awards include the 1975 The Age Book of the Year Award for A Kindness Cup, the 1980 James Cook Foundation of Australian Literature Studies Award for Hunting the Wild Pineapple, the 1986 ALS Gold Medal for Beachmasters, the 1988 Steele Rudd Award for It’s Raining in Mango, the 1990 NSW Premier’s Prize for Reaching Tin River, and the 1996 The Age Book of the Year Award and the FAW Australian Unity Award for The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow.
Author Thea Astley
Publisher Penguin Random House Australia
Date of Publication 1989
ISBN 9781742531489 (eBook)
Category Novels
5467016
