Books
by Thomas Keneally
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Napoleon's Last Island |
Keneally imagines the touching relationship between a high-spirited English girl and the 'Ogre' that is Napoleon during his final exile on the mid-Atlantic island of St Helena. He perfectly captures the claustrophobia of life on such a remote colony, eliciting great sympathy for the two main protagonist through their unlikely friendship, but disdaining both the French hangers-on and the British rulers as personified by a vindictive new governor. The denouement is both shocking and sad.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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The Daughters of Mars |
This unusual perspective on WW I describes no battles only their aftermath: endless processions of the injured in desperate need of care. We share the experiences of two Australian sisters, volunteer nurses, alienated by a guilty secret. Their hospital ship off Gallipoli is torpedoed and they are sent to work in field hospitals first on Lemnos, then on the Western Front. Harrowing and moving yes, but there is humour, friendship, love and humanity too.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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