Jeannie Gunn – We of the Never-Never.
I re-read this after visiting the Elsey Station cemetery on our trip to Darwin. Many of the people mentioned in the book are buried there. Jeannie arrived as a bride in 1902. The property was 1 ½ million acres in size, and the homestead was 45 miles from the entrance. The “homestead” was little more than one single room, following a cyclone 5 years before. Unfortunately her husband became ill and died about a year after she arrived.
Before her marriage Jeannie had been a teacher at the family’s school, “Rolyat”, at 1 Creswick Street, Hawthorn. The Hawthorn Library has a photo showing Jeannie and the rest of the Taylor family gathered outside the building.
Hans Fallada – Alone in Berlin
This novel is set in Berlin during WWII. It shows the lives of ordinary working-class individuals, some of whom have seen through the lies and propaganda, and for all of whom fear and betrayal are never far away. Otto Quangel is a factory worker whose only son is killed at the Front. This death triggers Otto’s heroic but ultimately futile attempts at resistance against the nazis. The author himself lived through these times, and the book was first published in 1946.
Shamini Flint – A Bali conspiracy most foul
This is one of a series about Inspector Singh, a delightful rotund and untidy detective from Singapore, who is sent to Bali after the bombings to help the local authorities with their investigations. The author weaves an intriguing story around a second threatened attack, Islamic practices, domestic violence, a murder, and the real events known to us all. In a recent interview the author said that she likes to touch on ethical and social problems in her fiction, and this is borne out by all the books in this series.
