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Purple Roads

by Fleur McDonald (Goodreads Author)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 72 ratings · 15 reviews

When Anna and Matt finally buy their dream farm, their struggles aren't quite over, in an exciting new novel full of romance and mystery from the author of Red Dust and Blue Skies

Anna and Matt Butler were childhood sweethearts with a dream of owning their own land, a dream they achieved through hard work and determination. But as the seasons conspire against them and Matt...more

Paperback, 1st, 392 pages

Published April 2012 by Allen & Unwin Australia

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The Girl in Steel Capped Boots by Loretta Hill

The Cattleman's Daughter by Rachael Treasure

Australian Rural Fiction

36th out of 56 books — 39 voters

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Sep 05, 2012 Helen Margaret Murray rated it 4 of 5 stars

Purple Roads:

by Fleur McDonald, published in 2012 by Allan and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, suits late

teenage to adult readership, reviewed by Helen Murray.

Fleur McDonald and her family live on a farm in Western Australia. She loves to write about

the Australian landscape and people. This carefully crafted story is written in honour of her

truckie father. It is the third of her books, the others being Red Dust, and Blue Skies, all

about the Australian country scene.

Purple Roads canvasses the massiv...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Bree T rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian, aww2013, contemporary, rural-lit

Anna and Matt were high school sweethearts. Together they had a dream of owning their own parcel of land, farming for their living. When they had scraped enough money together to buy a farm, things couldn’t be better, even though it was always a struggle. They had several years where the drought crippled them. then Matt was involved in a bad accident. Finally, the theft of a large load of uninsured fertiliser was the last straw. The bank couldn’t lend them anymore money and they couldn’t afford...more Anna and Matt were high school sweethearts. Together they had a dream of owning their own parcel of land, farming for their living. When they had scraped enough money together to buy a farm, things couldn’t be better, even though it was always a struggle. They had several years where the drought crippled them. then Matt was involved in a bad accident. Finally, the theft of a large load of uninsured fertiliser was the last straw. The bank couldn’t lend them anymore money and they couldn’t afford to keep up the repayments when they had no means now to get the land to make them some more money. It had to be sold and they moved into a small rental in the nearby small town.

Matt sank into a deep depression, his whole world revolving around the loss of his beloved farm and his financial ruin. For months he does little except think and allow the bitterness to consume him. Finally he gets a job driving trucks and Anna begins to run a babysitting service from home. They are no longer struggling so badly for money, but things are not back to the way they were.

It seems that the theft of their fertiliser was not an isolated incident. Farms from around the district within a certain radius are also experiencing a similar sort of thing – a quick, well organised theft in the middle of the night, the goods never to be seen again. Matt finds himself becoming obsessed with the thefts, determined to find out who it is that is doing this. He is the only one who has lost his livelihood because of it but it’s damaging people around him too. Somewhere out there is a criminal with a lot of knowledge and a lot of front.

However Matt’s obsession has taken its toll on Anna. She’s tired of the anger, tired of the bitterness, tired of their whole lives revolving around this one incident. She thinks that the way of the future is to forget the past and look forward. They’re ok, they’re healthy, they have jobs and they have a beautiful daughter. Dwelling on past hurts is only going to keep the wounds fresh and not allow it to heal. With such fundamentally different ways of dealing with the loss and misfortune they have endured, Matt and Anna are at a crossroads. Is the fight truly worth fighting for or will they move on separately?

Purple Roads is Fleur McDonald’s third novel and is set in rural South Australia. Matt and Anna were a quintessential perfect couple – they met when they were 17 and 15 and patiently dated through their teens. When Anna’s parents moved away because her father got a new job, Anna remained behind as Matt worked on a farm, earning money to put towards his goal of his own farm. When Anna’s parents were involved in a terrible car accident, Matt went above and beyond the call of duty to support her. And when they finally purchased their own property, things were wonderful. Hard work and often it was a struggle to make ends meet, but they were happy. Even though the book starts after Matt and Anna purchase the farm, enough of their history is given so that the reader can really get a good picture of them as a couple.

That image of them is slowly deconstructed in the months after the fertiliser is stolen and they are forced into selling the farm. Matt cannot get past the grief of having lost his dream and he has trouble relating to his wife and even his toddler daughter. He finds himself becoming more and more obsessed with the theft from his farm and the snippets he hears about other thefts in the district. He makes notes, he drives around searching for clues. Once he doesn’t even alert Anna to the fact that he isn’t going to be home and he stays out all night, leaving her sick with worry. He can’t understand Anna’s lack of interest in finding out who did this to them, she just wants to move on. They aren’t on the same wavelength anymore, they don’t talk.

It was hard to watch Anna deflate each time Matt rejected her, or brushed her off. But later on in the book the reader does get a chance to really see things from Matt’s point of view and I think that was an important part of the story. Without that, it was all too easy to just urge Matt in my head to “get over it” and realise that he had a family right there that needed him. But once I slipped into his head and saw what it had meant to him, what he truly felt about what had happened and the way in which he felt about Anna’s reaction to everything, I could sort of understand. I still didn’t condone a lot of his behaviour, but I found it more easy to understand why he was that way. At times I felt myself getting mad on Anna’s behalf – I wanted to urge her to stand up for herself! But I think that Anna wanted to try and be supportive, but she also felt that she had to move on for the sake of herself and also their daughter. They needed money, they needed stability.

Purple Roads is a novel that gave me much more than I bargained for. I thought it would be more focused on romance but this is more contemporary rural fiction, rather than rural romance. I didn’t expect such a deep exploration of loss and disappointment and nor did I expect the tight and clever plot concerning the theft of the farm equipment. That story touched me as much as Matt and Anna’s and I found myself praying that certain people were not involved as I made my way through the book. It’s a smart story pairing a love of the land with a sensitive deep exploration of the mental struggles that may come from losing ones livelihood. I’ll be looking forward to her next novel, Silver Clouds which I think will be published sometime this year.(less)

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Mar 31, 2012 Lauren Murphy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: aww2012, aussie-author, romance, rural-lit

3.5 stars

Purple Roads is Australian author, Fleur McDonald’s third book that falls into the ‘rural lit’ genre, with elements of romance and suspense thrown in.

This story spreads over the course of a couple of years and is told in third person, mainly from the perspective of Anna and Matt, a young couple living in the South Australian countryside with their little girl named Ella. Although, they have been doing it tough financially in the past couple of years, Matt and Anna have each other and th...more 3.5 stars

Purple Roads is Australian author, Fleur McDonald’s third book that falls into the ‘rural lit’ genre, with elements of romance and suspense thrown in.

This story spreads over the course of a couple of years and is told in third person, mainly from the perspective of Anna and Matt, a young couple living in the South Australian countryside with their little girl named Ella. Although, they have been doing it tough financially in the past couple of years, Matt and Anna have each other and their dream of running a farm. However, after a string of bad luck including, dry seasons, an accident with the stock and stolen fertilizer, Anna and Matt have no choice but to sell up their farm and move into town.

Matt becomes obsessed with finding the culprit of the theft when a string of farm robberies canvas the local region, at the cost of his family and wellbeing. All Anna wants to do is move on and start to build a new, different future wtih Matt from the one that they had dreamed. But somewhere amidst his grief and despair they become disconnected and not only do they have to rebuild their lives, but their relationship as well.

Fleur McDonald has created two strong, hard-working characters who are both relateable and likeable. There were certainly times when I felt frustrated by Anna and more so by Matt who kept his feelings bottled up and became quite moody. But both of their inner conflicts were realistic. A young man, a provider, who loses his livelihood and is overwhelmed by feelings of failure and hopelessness… Matt finds a way to feel like he can regain control- by investigating the robberies. Anna tends to walk on eggshells and is patient in Matt’s grief and obsessions but there comes a time when she has had enough and stands up for herself. Unfortunately, Matt is too far gone to really care by that stage.

Suspense is built up slowly in the story as Matt follows leads of the theft, but in doing so he puts his life at risk. It turns out he doesn’t know who he can trust among his friends and colleagues.

The ending was satisfying, albeit a little rushed, but I was happy to see Matt and Anna work things out. Purple Roads is a story about a young family who are struggling in the country to own a farm in a time difficult for the industry and how they manage to work through it and become a stronger family in the end.
(less)

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Mar 26, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-are, aussie-author

Purple Roads is Fleur McDonald's third novel set in rural Australia, a region and lifestyle that she is familiar with as a stock and crop farmer in Western Australia. Teetering on the brink of financial collapse after several harsh seasons, Anna and Matt Butler lose their farm when they are targeted by a thief. Anna is devastated but determined to provide the best life she can for the couple's young daughter, hoping to eventually return to a life of farming. Matt however, is broken, angry and de...more Purple Roads is Fleur McDonald's third novel set in rural Australia, a region and lifestyle that she is familiar with as a stock and crop farmer in Western Australia. Teetering on the brink of financial collapse after several harsh seasons, Anna and Matt Butler lose their farm when they are targeted by a thief. Anna is devastated but determined to provide the best life she can for the couple's young daughter, hoping to eventually return to a life of farming. Matt however, is broken, angry and depressed, he is obsessed with discovering the identity of the thief that he holds responsible for the loss of his farm. As Matt's bitterness drives a wedge between himself and his wife, he becomes reckless in his pursuit for justice and finds himself in danger of losing everything.

Purple Roads is a contemporary Australian story of rural life, relationships and family with a surprising twist. I say surprising, because I was expecting, based on the cover and a cursory glance at publicity materials, something more grounded in the romance or chick lit genre. Instead, Purple Roads has a strong element of suspense and while the state of the relationship between Anna and Matt is integral to the story, it does not play out as a traditional romance. I'm not sure if the publicity spin does the novel any favours, even if labeled more generically 'women's fiction', it poses some issues given that Matt tends to edge out Anna as the protagonist of the story. However if I put aside the issues of which genre niche Purple Roads fits most comfortably, it is simply an enjoyable and engaging story.

Though written in the third person the story unfolds through several narratives. Matt and Anna's stories moves on from the loss of their farm through a difficult year both together and apart, Jimmy's begins during his memories of the Vietnam War and sporadically we are privy to the concerns of the unnamed thief in the midst of his crimes. Initially I thought the inclusion of Jimmy's story was out of left field but it does eventually make sense within the context of the story. For me, however, Matt is the dominant character within the novel, despite the female profile that graces the cover. I think its because Matt's emotions are more intense and he is more actively involved in the plot than Anna.

Childhood sweethearts, the loss of the farm divides them as Matt takes out his distress on Anna and spurns her support. The relationship between Anna and Matt is a feature of the plot and McDonald sensitively explores the breakdown of their marriage in a way that makes neither party the enemy, Matt's tortured emotions are credible as is Anna's frustration.
The suspense element hinges on Matt's obsession with finding the culprits who stole the load of fertiliser that crippled his farm. To begin with Matt's investigation is fairly aimless, even as he is harassed by a black sports car. It takes some time for him to do more than idly collect bits of information and I would have liked him to be more proactive from the start. The clues are there for the reader, though its not until the end of the book that it all comes together.
The depiction of the setting and rural lifestyle is certainly a strength of the novel, from the description of the Butler's farm, to the country town general store and community. McDonald also features long haul truckers that criss cross the vast outback, routes familiar to her from traveling with her father.

I enjoyed Purple Roads, the blend of genres appeals to me and I always appreciate a strong Australian setting. I hope to read more from Fleur McDnald soon.(less)

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Apr 23, 2012 Suzanne Brandyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

This story rivited me to the end. I loved loved it. Poor Anna, and Matt was so uhm... The story line filled with suspense, and oh those pages were turning as quickly as I my mind would allow me to turn the pages.

A great story, a few tears, and an ending that I prayed would happen. Phew. I would have been so disappointed if there were a different ending. Loved and loved it. Oh did I say that. :)

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May 29, 2012 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this heartfelt novel.
Understanding farm life and what goes into and then having your dream taken from you would be hard on any family.
It was great hearing from Matt's point of view in this story.
This was an easy read that I didn't want to put down. A good who dunnit. The suspense throughout kept my guessing.

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Apr 11, 2012 Bobbi-Jo Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved it! It made me feel like i was going through all the turnoil and problems in their lives! I finished it is two days, could of been one but it got to dark to continue reading it! Can wait to read the other two!

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May 11, 2013 Zoey Friend rated it 3 of 5 stars

A good story, though slow at times. As you get more involved in the story and the characters it does become a bit of a page turner.

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Mar 26, 2012 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a fantastic read set in my current home state so it was extremely easy to get involved in.
My thoughts are here http://bookgirl.beautyandlace.net/pur...

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Oct 08, 2012 Naomi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loved it - I can taste the dust!!

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Apr 12, 2012 Naomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

I did not enjoy this book as much as the other ones.

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Apr 25, 2012 Bettina rated it 4 of 5 stars

A rural romance mixed with mystery that kept me turning the pages until the end.

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Nov 12, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think this is Fleur McDonald's best book yet. I found the storyline interesting, and the characters were easy to understand! The only negative thing I could say was that perhaps the ending came about all too quickly. (But I still really enjoyed the book!)

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Oct 14, 2012 Janine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie-author, chick-lit, australian-fiction

I found this a bit slow at times and I have been reading a lot of rural chick-lit type of books so I am probably needing to read a different genre for a while

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Jul 27, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, aussie-fiction

The third novel by Fleur McDonald and another wonderful rural read.

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Shelves: completed-reading

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Apr 20, 2013 Deb Bodinnar rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Apr 08, 2013 Clare rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apr 06, 2013 Wendy Slight rated it 4 of 5 stars

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About Fleur McDonald

Born and bred in Orroroo, the mid-north of South Australia, my parents were fuel distributors. I spent a lot of my childhood in the fuel trucks, with Dad, heading north, meeting all sorts of wonderful Northern characters.

We now live 110km east of Esperance, on 8,000 acres. Here, I help Anthony care for two children and a menagerie of dogs, cattle, sheep and a bit of crop, not to mention tractors a...more

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