Les Naufragés de la discorde

Grayling Family #2

by Jock Serong, Isabelle Chapman (Translator)

1797. Sur une plage près de la colonie de Sydney, un bateau de pêche prend à son bord trois naufragés hagards et gravement blessés. Ils ont marché sur des centaines de kilomètres dans un pays dont les coutumes et le peuple leur sont totalement inconnus. En chemin, ils ont perdu quatorze membres de l'équipage. Et surtout, leur récit de la catastrophe diverge...
C'est au lieutenant Joshua Grayling que revient la tâche d'enquêter sur leur histoire. Il finit par comprendre que ces quatorze morts ont été orchestrées par un seul et même esprit calculateur et tandis que le périple des marins se révèle dans toute son horreur, il s'interroge : et si l'impitoyable tueur représentait une menace pour sa propre famille ?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Audiobook, Australia, Novels, Crime

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2020

About the author

Jock Serong lives and works on the far southwest coast of Victoria. He was a practising lawyer when he wrote Quota and is currently a features writer, and the editor of Great Ocean Quarterly. He is married with four children, who in turn are raising a black dog, a rabbit and an unknown number of guinea pigs. Quota was his first novel.

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a very well written book which brings to light some of the lesser known and not particularly nice aspects of Australia's past.

The main story is a bit thin but there is so much more in the book starting with life in old Sydney town and then moving on to a dangerous sea voyage on a small ship around the Bass Strait islands. At the end of the book Serong fills the reader in with information about how much of his story is based in fact and how much is his fiction.

Parts of the voyage seemed long and uneventful and I was not enamored with the some of the Doctor's scientific experiments. I had to skim the nastier bits. However the beautiful descriptions of the sea and the islands were well worth reading every single word.

I wonder if we will find out what happens to Eliza and Argyle in the next book.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was 1830 and thirty-two-year-old Eliza Grayling was at the markets when she was aware of being watched. The man followed her until she confronted him and learned he was Srinivas, who had known her father in days gone by. Former Lieutenant Joshua Grayling was now reclusive and blind, and Eliza cared for him. What Srinivas wanted was something Eliza would not encourage. But before much time had passed, Eliza joined Joshua – as his carer and his eyes – on the Moonbird in search of a missing vessel. The Bass Strait was a dangerous stretch of sea for a voyage and one such as this was bound to have a bad outcome…

The Burning Island is the 2nd in the Grayling trilogy and follows on from Preservation – 33 years from the end of that novel. Eliza has lived in Sydney her whole life and she’s an independent spinster who cares for her father. The vastness of the ocean around Bass Strait; the journey they took to find the missing ship and her cargo; her father’s obsession – all narrated in Eliza’s voice, told a moving, descriptive story. Part fact, part fiction by Australian author Jock Serong, The Burning Island is to be recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★

The latest novel from master storyteller Jock Serong, is a sequel to his darkly exciting book, Preservation, set 33 years later. According to an article I read in the Australian Financial Review, there will eventually be a trilogy paying tribute to his fascination with the Furneaux Islands of Bass Strait. And I have to say - he's definitely onto something. While I think The Burning Island could be read as a standalone, I really wouldn't recommend it as the reading experience is going to be much richer with the more detailed background knowledge of what happened in the first instalment.

It's towards the end of 1830 and we are in Parramatta. Eliza Grayling is a 32yo, tall and fiercely intelligent spinster-governess. She's content with her situation - not happy really, but content - as it allows her the time and freedom to keep an eye on her father, former Lieutenant Joshua Grayling. He needs it, too. He's suffered a massive fall from grace and is now an aged, blind, reclusive, grieving alcoholic. In the opening pages Eliza is approached in the street by a man who is trying to locate her father in order to put a business proposition to him. The man is none other than Srinivas, former lascar from the Sydney Cove. These days he's a prosperous trader but he's had a ship and its cargo go missing, and he thinks their old nemesis might be behind it. He wants Joshua Grayling to go looking for the missing ship. Eliza is beyond scornful of this idea - her father is blind, after all. But Joshua is immediately drawn to the possibility of confrontation, so between the two men, they wear Eliza down and she agrees to accompany her father on the voyage, to be his eyes and his carer. Off they sail, aboard the Moonbird, to Bass's strait.

This is a tale of exploration of the Furneaux group of islands, and the small contingent methodically sails from island to island in search of evidence of the missing ship. Some of the islands are settled by European sealers and their tyereelore wives, lawless by reputation, but perhaps in many cases simply characterised that way due to their distance from law enforcement in Van Diemens Land/lutruwita. A lot of the tension in the story comes from the meetings with these strangers - not knowing whether they are friend or foe. And I have to say, the identity of a certain fellow passenger on board the Moonbird, seemed like such an obvious threat to me right from that character's introduction, that I had to presume Serong did that to increase my anxiety as a reader, while Eliza and Joshua remained oblivious. Throw in an encounter with one of George Robinson's proxies, rounding up the Palawa people from the islands (mostly women and children but some men as well) to take them away to be Christianised, and there is a veritable rollercoaster of colonial thrills.

The entire story is told from Eliza'a point of view, giving it a lot more texture than Preservation had. By that I mean there are some moments of softness and light, in contrast to Preservation's hard darkness. I think it's for this reason that I enjoyed the reading experience much more this time (but don't get me wrong - Preservation was a really good story). The other big factor for me was that this one is set largely in the islands, giving Serong scope to draw on the history of the local indigenous people. It's something I am thirsty to learn about. (I was born and brought up in Tasmania, and having lived there the greater portion of my life it was only relatively recently that I learned the name lutruwita - we just weren't taught this stuff at school!)

Knowing there is a 3rd book to come, my mind has been racing, working through the loose ends, wondering where Serong will take this saga next. I can barely wait!

With thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for an advance copy to read and review.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a spontaneous re-read to prepare for the launch of part #3 of the Bass Strait trilogy, and I'm happy to report it was just as good. I'd forgotten a few things, so it was worth the listen to refresh my memory.

The audiobook edition is narrated by Danielle Carter, and this is the second of her audiobook performances I've listened to in the past month. She is fast becoming a favourite narrator.

* This book is on the shortlist for The Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History, a biennial book award established in 2016 to commemorate the contribution of Dick and Joan Green to Tasmanian culture and history.

Link to original review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The surface was calm enough to reflect the galaxies, so that it looked as though the universe swirled all around us above and below, as if up and down had ceased to exist and only all around remained: the Moonbird was aloft and freed of its own weight.”

The Burning Island is the fifth novel by award-winning Australian author, Jock Serong and is a sequel to his earlier novel featuring Joshua Grayling, Preservation. When thirty-two-year-old tutor, Eliza Grayling is followed home from town by an ageing Indian, she cannot, for one moment, conceive that she will be, at his suggestion, setting out on a journey to Bass’s Strait with her ageing, blind father, mere days later.

Srinivas has come to her with a story of a missing ship: crew, cargo and passengers all believed lost, the wreckage of which he blames on a certain Mr Figge, the almost mythical figure who inhabits the disturbing story her father, Joshua sometimes tells. Once in the service of Governor Hunter, on hearing about the loss of the Howrah, the former Lieutenant exhibits uncharacteristic enthusiasm for the proposed investigatory voyage, clearly eager to draw out his nemesis. Eliza is well aware of her father’s problem with drink, and feels that his taking part is inadvisable.

What, more than anything, sways Eliza to participate in this rather nebulous quest, is the vessel itself, a Danish schooner named The Moonbird: “I have no regard for the idea that it is possible to love an inanimate object. I will choose instead to say that this modest boat, perhaps eighty feet of her, was animate. And she was entangled, right alongside me, in a venture that made no sense. I felt she was on my side … I felt the boat cared for us in our individual plights, held us cupped somehow: carrying us, rather than being sailed by us.”

The master that Srinivas has engaged for The Moonbird is a rather sombre man who surprises them all by garbing himself in a range of fetching dresses; the crew are two young convicts, capable brothers raised separately, who are both tender and volatile with each other; the paying passenger is a medical doctor intent on research of sea creatures for human nutrition, who fills the captain’s quarters with a laboratory’s worth of equipment and specimens.

The close quarters serve to quickly amplify both passions and conflicts, but it is not until a gross betrayal of trust and several deaths that the true situation is known.

Serong gives the reader an entrancing tale laced with some exquisite descriptive prose: “a wide body of water opened to the north of us, flat and serene and impossibly lovely. It made a chalky blue-green over the sandflats, a blue of royalty over the deeps, shades of lilac and mauve where a haze blended the two, further away. And in the places where waves rolled gently over reefs, other colours would dare to intrude upon the chorus of those shades; a burst of orange and brown where the surge lifted kelp to the surface, an explosion of white as the wave broke and dissipated”

He gives his complex characters some wise words and insightful observations: “Anyone who loves intensely will believe it is they who emit the light, they who shine warmth on the other. There is a selfcentredness in love, so strong that we fail to notice the loved one illuminating us” and, on grief: “You are fated to carry this all your days now, this loss. But you may alter its shape; that is the one grace permitted you.”

The Author’s Note details the actual historical events that form part of the story; readers will be grateful for the detailed map included; Serong’s extensive research is apparent on every page, touching on the structure of island sealing communities, the appalling treatment of indigenous Tasmanians by white settlers and government, and the “Christian” activities of certain nineteenth-Century evangelists, to name a few topics. This is a powerful piece of Australian historical fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Text Publishing.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Danielle Carter's narration, over-emphatic and weirdly paced, does this fine historical fiction novel no favours.

“The surface was calm enough to reflect the galaxies, so that it looked as though the universe swirled all around us above and below, as if up and down had ceased to exist and only all around remained: the Moonbird was aloft and freed of its own weight.”

The Burning Island is the fifth novel by award-winning Australian author, Jock Serong and is a sequel to his earlier novel featuring Joshua Grayling, Preservation. When thirty-two-year-old tutor, Eliza Grayling is followed home from town by an ageing Indian, she cannot, for one moment, conceive that she will be, at his suggestion, setting out on a journey to Bass’s Strait with her ageing, blind father, mere days later.

Srinivas has come to her with a story of a missing ship: crew, cargo and passengers all believed lost, the wreckage of which he blames on a certain Mr Figge, the almost mythical figure who inhabits the disturbing story her father, Joshua sometimes tells. Once in the service of Governor Hunter, on hearing about the loss of the Howrah, the former Lieutenant exhibits uncharacteristic enthusiasm for the proposed investigatory voyage, clearly eager to draw out his nemesis. Eliza is well aware of her father’s problem with drink, and feels that his taking part is inadvisable.

What, more than anything, sways Eliza to participate in this rather nebulous quest, is the vessel itself, a Danish schooner named The Moonbird: “I have no regard for the idea that it is possible to love an inanimate object. I will choose instead to say that this modest boat, perhaps eighty feet of her, was animate. And she was entangled, right alongside me, in a venture that made no sense. I felt she was on my side … I felt the boat cared for us in our individual plights, held us cupped somehow: carrying us, rather than being sailed by us.”

The master that Srinivas has engaged for The Moonbird is a rather sombre man who surprises them all by garbing himself in a range of fetching dresses; the crew are two young convicts, capable brothers raised separately, who are both tender and volatile with each other; the paying passenger is a medical doctor intent on research of sea creatures for human nutrition, who fills the captain’s quarters with a laboratory’s worth of equipment and specimens.

The close quarters serve to quickly amplify both passions and conflicts, but it is not until a gross betrayal of trust and several deaths that the true situation is known.

Serong gives the reader an entrancing tale laced with some exquisite descriptive prose: “a wide body of water opened to the north of us, flat and serene and impossibly lovely. It made a chalky blue-green over the sandflats, a blue of royalty over the deeps, shades of lilac and mauve where a haze blended the two, further away. And in the places where waves rolled gently over reefs, other colours would dare to intrude upon the chorus of those shades; a burst of orange and brown where the surge lifted kelp to the surface, an explosion of white as the wave broke and dissipated”

He gives his complex characters some wise words and insightful observations: “Anyone who loves intensely will believe it is they who emit the light, they who shine warmth on the other. There is a selfcentredness in love, so strong that we fail to notice the loved one illuminating us” and, on grief: “You are fated to carry this all your days now, this loss. But you may alter its shape; that is the one grace permitted you.”

The Author’s Note details the actual historical events that form part of the story; readers will be grateful for the detailed map included; Serong’s extensive research is apparent on every page, touching on the structure of island sealing communities, the appalling treatment of indigenous Tasmanians by white settlers and government, and the “Christian” activities of certain nineteenth-Century evangelists, to name a few topics. This is a powerful piece of Australian historical fiction.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointing read for me. Unlike other books by Jock Serong, not a lot happened in this one, which is surprising, as all his other books are full of action.

The other downsides for me were:

1) the twist in the plot was quite obvious
2) the sea journey went on and on
3) the visits to the various islands on the journey didn't add anything to the storyline

This book should have been edited, thus giving the storyline a far better pace and more focus.

Having said all of the above though, the actual writing was good, and I look forward to reading Jock Serong's next novel.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Calzean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serong's writing is quite varied but this time he bases the story on a few historical facts of the 1830s similar to what he did with Preservation.
Serong's narrator is a 30ish maiden who spends her time trying to educate two spoilt brats and looking after her reclusive, drunk father. Her father's past catches up with them and off they go on a hunt through the islands of Bass Strait looking for her father's evil nemesis. In their journey they experience the wildness of the sealers and escapees who have made lives on these remote islands.
The book covers the dark episodes of this period - forceable kidnapping of Aboriginal women, desecration of the sealing and mutton bird populations, the Government's ham-fisted attempts to round up the Aboriginal population to give them a Christian upbringing, the acts of piracy to lure innocent shipping to destruction and the drunkenness and alcoholism of many.
The writing and story lines with various coincidences, bad guys and good women reads like a book from that period. Serong does his usual fine job again showing his versatility and talents.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second in a series of novels, by the author, mainly based on the Furneaux islands located between Australia and Tasmania.
This one set years after the original shipwreck and is about a journey to find a villain from that wreck, who may have been responsible for another wreck in the same area. The original characters that appear in this story and the last have changed quite a bit and the main narrator had not been born in the previous book.
It's interesting returning to the Furneaux Islands in the novel, populated by motely crew of sealers and their indigenous partners (partner being a loose term for women who may have been abducted from their families). Many indigenous people alive today who's heritage is from Tasmania, are descended from these women.
The story unfolds and takes various twists and turns. Quite good but not as good as the first one, IMHO. Still it's a good read.

[Laur · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Burning Island, by Jock Serong, is a historical fiction story that takes place in 1830 based upon the shipwreck of the "Howrah". Believing it was not the work of nature, the Bengali, Srinivas, asks Joshua Grayling to find out the mystery of what happened to the Howrah, along with it's cargo and the list of 30 passengers that are all missing, half of which were woman. Srinivas and Joshua Grayling feel an evildoer is responsible for this, a man known by the name of Mister Figge. Grayling jumps at the chance to confront him and bring him down despite the fact he hasn't sailed for years, he's completely blind, and totally addicted to alcohol, being drunk nearly all the time. His daughter, Eliza Grayling, tall, outspoken, in her 30's never married, adamantly insists her father not go, and detests his nearly constant state of drunkenness, but to no avail. She resigns herself to going with her father, and a small crew, including the master of the ship, Argyle, who wears dresses on the ship. The vessel chosen for the tasks, is a vessel called, "Moonbird". They have no idea what awaits all of them on this journey!

The Burning Island was an intriguing read. Some of the scientific marine biology may be a bit more schooling than some would prefer, but nevertheless, the characters were colorful and diverse, there was mystery, excitement, twists, and a surprise ending. Also, the Author's Note at the end was enjoyable and informative. Well done.

4 STARS.
My thanks to Netgalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Text Publishing]

The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of The Burning Island

‘A rollicking good yarn… brilliantly written and immensely entertaining.’
Noosa Today

‘A captivating, beautiful seafaring novel.’
Mirandi Riwoe

'Another absolute ripper from Jock Serong. A swashbuckling historical thriller with a steely female protagonist, a cross-dressing sea captain, loads of convincing detail and even more derring-do. Read it in one sitting.’
Alex McClintock

‘Razor-sharp descriptions, unique characters and meticulous research bring the brutal challenges of the Australian colonies vividly to life.’
Staunch Prize

‘Wow. Put me in this time machine for a few hours… This is a dashing learned book… I could not stop reading this book. If this is historical fiction, give me more.’
Australian

'Menacing, moving, maritime mystery of colonial times that drags you into a morass of wonderful, mad, inventive characters whose motives are only part of an intricately woven, surprising plot.’
Manning Community News

‘Jock Serong’s evocative novel “shines a light onto the experiences of race, gender and power in colonial Australia and Tasmania”. It was “a product of detailed and thorough historical research” that combined with an imaginative vision takes the reader into a past world that has shaped our present”.’
The 2022 Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History judge’s comments

[Gay Harding · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this hard to read in two ways. Firstly some of the terms I didn’t understand and secondly I was frustrated with the daughter’s relationship with her father. The cross dressing captain was an interesting characterisation but I found it hard to believe it wasn’t treated with more derision by others. Both character’s behaviours were eventually explained...ok, the father’s was feasible but the captain’s was a bit hard to swallow.
Slow reading with not much happening.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, but I didn't realise this was the second book in a trilogy. I wish I'd read 'Preservation' first, an excellent book, because 'The Burning Island' would then have made a lot more sense to me. It's pleasing to find a publishing house which believes in the inclusion of a map to help the reader follow the story.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follows on 33 years after the end of events in ‘Preservation’. Told from daughter Eliza’s point of view. She accompanies her blind father on a search for cargo lost among the islands off Tasmanian coast. Set in 1830s, relations between indigenous and white sealers, government officials make the story terribly tragic. I should add Indigenous women, forcibly transplanted from Van Diemen’s Land, now often sealers wives, emerge as powerful figures.
Great reading and learning to be had from this second book in a series.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘I had been aware of the man in the corner of my vision for an hour or more.’

Sydney, 1830. Eliza Grayling, thirty-two years old, has lived in Sydney all her life. Unmarried, she lives by herself and looks out for her father Joshua, a reclusive alcoholic. There is something in Joshua’s past that haunts him. Something that happened before she was born, something he does not speak about.

‘Circumstances are strands in a rope … it was their combination that mattered.’

And then, another man from the past arrives. Srinivas, whose ship the Howrah has been lost. Srinivas wants Joshua’s help. He believes that foul play is involved, in the islands of the Furneaux group. After following Eliza, Srinivas meets with Grayling. Grayling remembers him and agrees to help. He sees an opportunity to meet with his nemesis, Figge. An opportunity to revisit and put right what went wrong thirty-three years earlier.

Joshua Grayling is blind: Eliza feels obliged to travel with him. They are to travel on the Moonbird, with a small crew, including Dr Gideon who is a medical doctor and an amateur naturalist.

What follows is an extraordinary voyage at a time when sealers were operating in the Furneaux group and when George Augustus Robinson’s agents actively seeking to remove Indigenous women from the islands. Mr Serong brings his characters to life: the flawed fictional characters as well as the real sealers and the tyereelore women living with them on the islands. It is a dark tale of pursuit, strength and weakness, and the power of the past over the present. Will Joshua Grayling find the answers he is looking for? Will Eliza be able to protect him from himself? It is an epic journey, a brilliantly written novel which, having given me some unforgettable images, has claimed its own space in my memory.

Mr Serong’s Author’s Note includes the facts around which this fiction is woven. He also provides some suggested reading for those of us who want to know more about the Furneaux group and those who lived there.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some terrific characters in this novel, but what impressed me most was the way Serong is perfectly at home on board The Moonbird and writes so convincingly about weaving in and out of narrow coves without coming to grief on the rocks notorious for thousands of wrecks during the Age of Sail.  I wonder if he is a yachtsman?

I will admit that I cottoned onto a crucial plot element early on, but it was still enjoyable reading for those who enjoy historical fiction.  It's respectful of the issues surrounding the activities of George Augustus Robinson and the terrible impact on Tasmania's Aborigines; and it's also truthful about the poignant lives of convicts so young that today they would just be starting secondary school.  

Oh, and another thing... Serong has won an award for writing a thriller that doesn't feature violence against women.  There are some gruesome murders in The Burning Island, but only one woman dies and that's offstage because it happened long ago.  There is violence against Aboriginal women too, but it's reported i.e. not lingered over in the salacious prose beloved of crime writers.  

PS There's a handy map which traces the voyage so that readers always know where they are!

[Kimmy C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome echoes of the much enjoyed Preservation, we find the Grayling family on a mission to track down the elusive Mr Figge. Eliza and her blind father are on board a schooner traversing the waters around the Furneaux group in search of their prey. And answers. They are joined by an eclectic group on board, the dress-wearing Master, convict brothers as deck hands, and the enigmatic Dr Gideon, whose purpose on board is to collect specimens from this remote region.
As the journey progresses, we learn about the people, their stories and, for some, their fate, and how it’s intertwined with those they meet on the way. Props to the author for my ‘I did not see that coming’ moment.
On the whole, a very enjoyable read, and, as it’s subtitled Grayling family #2, might we expect a #3? The descriptive prose took me to the area, and added more to my regretfully scant knowledge of the sad history of that region. I would recommend this, as it would do as a standalone if you brought yourself up to speed with the ‘why’, but best after you’ve read Preservation. You can catch up with old friends. 4.5 stars

[Michelle Prak]

Absolutely astounding and beautiful.

I wish I could craft a review as eloquent as Serong’s writing. This was a wonderous combination: enthralling story, a tale of the seas, a satisfying rewriting of some Australian lore, stunning literary observance of nature, and a thriller. How is it possible to do all these things at once?

Above all, as a daughter who dearly loves her sodden father, the familial relationship really spoke to me.

Give it all the prizes! And an epic movie, please.

[Chris Waterford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn to this by "Preservation", a superb book that is mostly true. I discovered this book is mostly fiction, and while well written, is very slow and not particularly engaging. Not a patch on "Preservation".
5.5/10
Second reading 6/10

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably didn't enjoy this novel as much as the other Jock Serong books I've read previously, largely because of it's slightly gothic feel. Set in early colonial Australia, it vividly evokes that time period, with lives valued cheaply and brutal, hard living, particularly for the indigenous Australian people living on the islands around Tasmania. Eliza is caught up in her father's need to avenge an old wrong and they set sail in search of his nemesis. The reason for this quest is deliberately kept a bit vague and a sense of mystery is ever present. Very well written, the setting is dark and foreboding and the characters often secretive. I haven't read the first book in this series, but as far as I can tell that didn't really matter. Recommended for anyone who likes historical fiction set during this time period.

[Deborah (debbishdotcom) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always regretted I didn't read The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong when it was released.

I've only heard amazing things about it so leapt at the chance to read Serong's latest release. What I hadn't realised about The Burning Island however, was that it is historical fiction (which isn't a favourite of mine) and that it is actually the sequel to his earlier work Preservation.

It meant I probably didn't appreciate the story on offer as much as I might otherwise have but I could certainly appreciate his beautiful prose and vivid descriptions of the islands of the Bass Strait and harsh coastline and living conditions of the time.


Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on some facets of Australian history, this story is at times disturbing and dark, but lightened by the beautiful prose and exquisite descriptions of both man and beast and their environments.

[Charline · Rating 3 out of 5]

glauque, camille pourrait aimer

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a sense this is a sequel to an earlier novel PRESERVATION in which Joshua Grayling was a key character. It involves the same geographic and historical setting - the Furneaux Islands in Bass Strait, the wreck of a ship and the disappearance of its passengers and cargo, but it is 30 years on, and Joshua Grayling, once assistant to Governor Hunter in the Sydney colony, is no longer the man he was. Now old, blind, and an alcoholic, he has been haunted for over 30 years by the thought of catching up with Master Figge, one of the survivors of the earlier wreck and the author of so much death.

Grayling is asked to undertake a private expedition to Bass Strait to discover what has happened to the Howrah, its passengers and its cargo. Some debris has been found that indicates that it has been wrecked. It is unthinkable that he take this voyage on his own, and so his daughter accompanies him. They arrive at the boat the Moonbird to discover that there is a paying passenger, doctor/scientist who will be studying birds and fish.

The Furneaux group in Bass Strait is largely populated by sealers who have taken Aboriginal wives, sometimes originally against their wills, and there are half-caste children. And the mad governor of Van Diemen's Land, Governor Arthur, is attempting to purge the main island and the Furneaux group of their Aboriginal population.

The story line didn't hold my interest as much as I would have liked, but that was certainly overlaid with a heap of interesting historical detail and and a wealth of very interesting characters, not the least the master of the Moonbird.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Burning Island is the second book in what will soon be a trilogy started with Jock Serong's Preservation. 30 years after the events of the previous book, Srinivas gets in contact with Joshua Grayling and his daughter, Eliza, to ask them to help hunt down Grayling's nemesis from Preservation, Figge. Srinivas believes Figg is responsible for wrecking a ship in the islands north east of (what is now) Tasmania and is hiding somewhere in those islands.

So starts a sea journey from Sydney south to Bass Strait and through the islands.

There was some interesting Australian history woven into this story, particularly around the native people of Tasmania. But overall I was a bit bored. Sail for a while... have an interesting (or not) encounter on an island... sail some more...

2.5 stars rounded down

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m giving this 4 Stars. Not because the story didn’t drag - because it did, at times. And not because I found some of the scenes and storylines throughout to be far fetched and implausible - because I certainly did. And not because of the way the author seemed to want to throw in as many things as possible into one story - because he definitely made an admirable attempt to do that!
I’m giving it 4 Stars because, through its pages (and google) it taught me some interesting things about our Australian history. I learnt words I did not know, nautical terms, stuff about the argonaut octopus, the tyereelore women, the small islands that reside in Bass Strait and of the shipwreck of the Sydney Cove.
A slow burner at first but then a page turner.
A worthwhile read.

[Nicole Sadler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love, love love, Jock Serong - his dry wit, scathing characatures and clever dialogue BUT
having already read Preservation (and it was a dark, dark read), I was completely frustrated by this book. I t was clearly obvious to the reader that Figge was present on the ship and that Eliza was in peril and therefore frustrating and a bit hard to believe, that neither Eliza nor her father had any inkling of this. Certainly, the sensory impressions of the voyage were well written but all in all, a bit of a disappointing story.
Sorry Jock.

[Declan Fry]

As in Preservation, Serong's period voice is assured, moving artfully out of sight in the narrative wings. The dialogue occasionally sees the author peeking from behind the curtains, though; it performs a lot of heavy lifting. Sentences strain for a gravitas that, spotlit between quotation marks, can feel bathetic.

Continue reading: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/...

[Jodie Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really brings colonial Australia to life. Beautiful writing and fascinating detail flesh out a rollicking gothic tale of a man's obsessive pursuit of a sinister enemy amongst the remote islands off Tasmania. The insight into the lives of the first nations sealers wives was interesting. The main character, Eliza though was not my favorite. I think she should go home and have a good think about herself and her actions before going anywhere on the page again. She seemed a bit vague.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always, of course, rather fraught beginning a trilogy in the middle, and then not reading the first or final parts. This story, however, can sit quite alone on its shelf by itself, and there are more than enough hints to allow you to fill in the missing details from the first part of the set.

I reckon.

This novel is hard (that is, rigidly factual where appropriate) historical fiction, and it even won a prize for being historical fiction. Being as it is dealing with history, it is very much reflective of the Moment in which it was written. The author has taken careful steps to give a voice to the (real) Aboriginal people who have found themselves within the orbit of the (mostly real) story, for one thing. He gives a stunning portrait of the (real) insurgent leader Tarenorerer, a woman inspired to make war upon "the whites" - any whites will do - as an act of defiance against what has happened to her personally and her people generally as a result of (real) British mishandling of Convictism. Specifically, Serong uses her in a nod to #metoo to examine and perhaps reveal (for those who are unaware) how Aboriginal women were (really) exploited - by Aboriginals and British alike - to make up for the (real) shortfall in the number of female convicts required in meeting the various (real) needs of the male convicts.

So there's that. And this will never date. Because it's history.

[One thing that might date it, though, will be when finally someone starts to actually and properly explore the exploitation of the convicts... but that time is not yet here]

The POV character is a freeborn British-Australian Sydney spinster of 30+, whose life revolves around caring for her drunkard father, a man whose personal demons [from the first novel in the series] have led him so far down the path of alcohol self-medication that he has been rendered blind.

Imagine that.

A revenant from his past sends him on a hopeless mission into the Furneaux Group, an archipelago in Bass's Strait, searching for information about the loss of a ship, a merchant bark that has disappeared, presumed wrecked by absconder convicts who apparently haunt the islands, picking off timber transports for the incredible wealth that such a lifestyle would bring.

This man who sends him off into the Heart of Darkness is an old friend and former (and ongoing) ally, one who has fought alongside the father against a particularly villainous villain. The business with that villainous villain - sadly - has not been satisfactorily resolved. The mission is not really to find what happened to the ship - and this is not a spoiler - but rather to find this villainous villain and, presumably, kill him.

Not that the blind and alcoholic father could kill him, of course. Sort of drop a pin on him and then someone else will kill him. Apparently.

There is a plan. It's on a need-to-know basis.

The POV - Miss Eliza Grayling - has some very reasonable reservations about the whole plan, but then she falls in love at first sight with the ship they are to be riding in, and that seals the deal.

From there, the story unfolds.

I am now going to present an opinion that asserts this novel is in the Tasmanian Gothic genre. Mainly because I see Gothic things everywhere, but also because it fits. Here is my thesis on this...

At the heart of the Traditional European Gothic is the revelation of the Monster, and how the Ingenue deals with that Monster. More importantly, it shows the reader that we are all Monsters, and, if we don't watch ourselves, our monstrosity can emerge.

In the Tasmanian Gothic - and this is my theory, it's not supported by any institutes or magazines that I know of, because I'm making it up based on what I've read - is specifically about betrayal, and how that leads to, or brings to a head, the Monster/Ingenue dynamic.

So. Betrayal, huh?

Back in them Convict Days, when a convict would abscond, he would always take along fellow convicts. Why? Wouldn't having other chaps along for the escape just slow him down? Wouldn't it be easier just to take off on his own? Scarper?

Well, he needs those other convicts.

For food.

There is an acceptable film that explores this historical fact. You can watch that film if you wish. I can wait.

The trailer will probably do, though.

So, as you (as a British convict) are escaping the British into a landscape to whose resources you are essentially blind, you need to know you will have something to eat. So, after a week or so, the Lead Absconder would conspire with Dawson and Dawes to kill Dawton, a conspiracy they would happily and hangrily go along with. Then, when they've gobbled all the Dawton scraps, Lead Absconder will conspire with Dawson to knock poor old Dawes on the head...

Betrayal.

So now, when you are reading this, you will need to work out who is going to be the betrayer.

Good luck with that.

There is also a smoking gun element that firmly establishes this as some sort of Gothic, and if you've ever read any of my reviews of Gothic novels, you will know what that element is. I won't say what that element is now, in case it spoils the story for you.

Oh, also, there's a ship's master who wears women's clothing pretty much the whole time. Admirably, Serong never lets that develop into farce. Well done, Serong.