What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sooterkin
A Dickensian tale set in early eighteenth-century Australia follows the hilarious adventures of an ex-convict and her husband after they give birth to a seal pup. A first novel. Reprint.
212 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
10 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 4, 2013
Another review of this book said it was like Dickens on crack, and I actually think that's rather accurate. I liked it a lot, though I did not seem to pick it up very often--I think that's more of a reflection on how busy our life is this month, rather than on the book. It was very witty and unique. I would definitely read another of his books.
December 16, 2013
Tom Gilling has written a witty novel that strains credulity, but that's understandable because it's about Australia, a place that strains credulity.
This isn't Crocodile Dundee territory. Gilling's story opens in the early 19th century when Australia reeks of poverty, crime, and ... well, it just plain reeks. Rancid whale blubber gives Hobart Town, where this strange story takes place, a particularly memorable stench.
"Sooterkin" is a comic reminder that the land Down Under was once a Dickensian nightmare for England's criminal castaways, not the gorgeous resort destination of today.
Poor Sarah Dyer thinks she has her hands full trying to raise a young pick-pocket with no help from her alcoholic husband. But when she gives birth to a seal, her prospects start looking up.
After all, the poor residents of Hobart Town don't enjoy many entertaining diversions. The local Gazette - quoted throughout with great comic effect - struggles to attract readers with news of disasters and misfortunes of all kinds. A woman giving birth to a seal is a perfect replacement for the previous week's story about a two-legged unicorn.
Too outlandish to believe? Remember, this is Australia. Considering the animals here, what wouldn't you believe?
Soon, a parade of Hobart's bizarre citizenry are passing through the Dyer's hovel, plunking down a few shillings to look at their newest (and furriest) resident.
Everyone has a private theory about the nature and cause of this little creature. Indeed, in an age as scientifically confident as ours, "Sooterkin" is a timely parable about the folly of clinging to a narrow set of principles in the face of something inexplicable. The town's natural scientist believes it might be a sooterkin, a mythical monster born to women several centuries ago in Holland. The police chief's wife suspects fraud. Rev. Kidney is eager to avoid passing any judgement on this event at all.
The seal's eight-year-old brother, meanwhile, simply loves him. "What is it like to be kissed by a seal pup?" the narrator asks. "It's like nuzzling tripe. Or blowing your nose on a stinging nettle."
The incongruous parts of this novel are something like the parts of that other Australian original: the duck-billed platypus. This is a book composed almost entirely of side characters, but fortunately Gilling is a comic genius with side characters.
For instance, Mr. Scully is a 100 percent wit-free man of science recently converted to the revelations of phrenology - the practice of reading a person's character by analyzing the shape of his head. (His house is decorated with framed water colors of diseased organs.) Living in this resort for convicts, he looks forward to the day when people can be arrested on the basis of their facial features.
Rev. Kidney came to the colony as a chaplain in order to escape his creditors. Expecting an easy fortune in lush paradise, for a year he survived (barely) in a tent surrounded by mud so deep that sheep regularly drowned in it. What little he brought with him from England was stolen by less refined immigrants.
But now he's living a relatively stable life, under the care of a housekeeper who starves him and works as an abortionist on the side. The last thing he wants is to be dragged into some theological quagmire about the nature of a seal-baby. Largely to avoid that controversy, he rides off into the woods to see a dying farmer and pretty much takes the plot with him.
Meanwhile, when the seal pup is stolen, his young brother sets out in pursuit, followed by his guilt-ridden father, and then the entire town of bizarre characters. It's always funny, but the provocative theme of the book's opening dissipates.
"Sooterkin" spent more than a month on the bestseller list in Sydney last year. As a witty summer read, it's as slippery and unexpected as a ... well, you know.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0608/p2...
This isn't Crocodile Dundee territory. Gilling's story opens in the early 19th century when Australia reeks of poverty, crime, and ... well, it just plain reeks. Rancid whale blubber gives Hobart Town, where this strange story takes place, a particularly memorable stench.
"Sooterkin" is a comic reminder that the land Down Under was once a Dickensian nightmare for England's criminal castaways, not the gorgeous resort destination of today.
Poor Sarah Dyer thinks she has her hands full trying to raise a young pick-pocket with no help from her alcoholic husband. But when she gives birth to a seal, her prospects start looking up.
After all, the poor residents of Hobart Town don't enjoy many entertaining diversions. The local Gazette - quoted throughout with great comic effect - struggles to attract readers with news of disasters and misfortunes of all kinds. A woman giving birth to a seal is a perfect replacement for the previous week's story about a two-legged unicorn.
Too outlandish to believe? Remember, this is Australia. Considering the animals here, what wouldn't you believe?
Soon, a parade of Hobart's bizarre citizenry are passing through the Dyer's hovel, plunking down a few shillings to look at their newest (and furriest) resident.
Everyone has a private theory about the nature and cause of this little creature. Indeed, in an age as scientifically confident as ours, "Sooterkin" is a timely parable about the folly of clinging to a narrow set of principles in the face of something inexplicable. The town's natural scientist believes it might be a sooterkin, a mythical monster born to women several centuries ago in Holland. The police chief's wife suspects fraud. Rev. Kidney is eager to avoid passing any judgement on this event at all.
The seal's eight-year-old brother, meanwhile, simply loves him. "What is it like to be kissed by a seal pup?" the narrator asks. "It's like nuzzling tripe. Or blowing your nose on a stinging nettle."
The incongruous parts of this novel are something like the parts of that other Australian original: the duck-billed platypus. This is a book composed almost entirely of side characters, but fortunately Gilling is a comic genius with side characters.
For instance, Mr. Scully is a 100 percent wit-free man of science recently converted to the revelations of phrenology - the practice of reading a person's character by analyzing the shape of his head. (His house is decorated with framed water colors of diseased organs.) Living in this resort for convicts, he looks forward to the day when people can be arrested on the basis of their facial features.
Rev. Kidney came to the colony as a chaplain in order to escape his creditors. Expecting an easy fortune in lush paradise, for a year he survived (barely) in a tent surrounded by mud so deep that sheep regularly drowned in it. What little he brought with him from England was stolen by less refined immigrants.
But now he's living a relatively stable life, under the care of a housekeeper who starves him and works as an abortionist on the side. The last thing he wants is to be dragged into some theological quagmire about the nature of a seal-baby. Largely to avoid that controversy, he rides off into the woods to see a dying farmer and pretty much takes the plot with him.
Meanwhile, when the seal pup is stolen, his young brother sets out in pursuit, followed by his guilt-ridden father, and then the entire town of bizarre characters. It's always funny, but the provocative theme of the book's opening dissipates.
"Sooterkin" spent more than a month on the bestseller list in Sydney last year. As a witty summer read, it's as slippery and unexpected as a ... well, you know.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0608/p2...
September 6, 2024
None of the reviews mentioned all the racist things he writes
July 11, 2013
This is a Most Unusual Book.
The author definitely deserves 5 stars for his murky, soiled descriptions of people, their characters, and the places they inhabit. It's a filthy, falling-down world filled with snaggled, broken people.
The plot is equally Strange. A sooterkin is an odd creature born to a poor woman and it resembles a baby seal. There are many nearby who would like to exhibit it and profit thereby. A kidnapping and pursuit ensue.
Surely that sounds like it's worth more stars, so what gives?
I can't really explain that any more than the author explains his sooterkin. The book is just so Very Decidedly Peculiar.
The author definitely deserves 5 stars for his murky, soiled descriptions of people, their characters, and the places they inhabit. It's a filthy, falling-down world filled with snaggled, broken people.
The plot is equally Strange. A sooterkin is an odd creature born to a poor woman and it resembles a baby seal. There are many nearby who would like to exhibit it and profit thereby. A kidnapping and pursuit ensue.
Surely that sounds like it's worth more stars, so what gives?
I can't really explain that any more than the author explains his sooterkin. The book is just so Very Decidedly Peculiar.
November 26, 2013
It's been a while since I read this book...but I disagree with many of the reviewers here. This book is very unique and odd. It is not quickly forgotten. Certainly, I don't remember the details of the book-but feelings, moments, etc. have stuck with me from it. It is not a long read. If you enjoy the Decemberists sea-faring tales, Dickens, quirky almost-fantasy fiction, then you might want to check this out.
February 26, 2009
I don't know what's up with all the low reviews, While this book was neither life-changing or life-affirming it was quite endearing. All the local oddball characters of Hobart town are enough to pull you through the story. The ending is abrupt, yet hit with a very emotional punch...at least that's what I think.
May 3, 2018
Not really sure what I was expecting here. Another book set in Hobart in the early 1800s. I suppose quirky covers most of it. Almost random interconnected threads with an undertone of ? (I was expecting an undertone of fairy tale and got an undertone of freak show...)
January 5, 2009
Fiction. This is like Dickens on crack. Early 19th century Australia was full of convicts and missionaries and bandits, and so is this book. There's a plot, sort of, but the story is really about colonial Australia instead. Everyone gets a chance to narrate, even a horse or two, and as a result the novel has a unfocused, distracted tone. It's like a long aimless walk through the wilderness instead of a hike in a state park. The writing is clever and dryly amused and really carries the wandering narrative. Two of my favorite lines:
Such habits, in the chaplain's eyes, constitute evidence of a macabre and unhealthy enthusiasm for science.
And:
It is Mrs Jakes's opinion that all men are fools. She holds this opinion in the sense that Pythagoras held an opinion about right-angled triangles and Copernicus about planets.
The novel's tone and subject matter feels authentic to the time period, and comes complete with articles and ads from the local paper that utilize the Random and somewhat Bizarre use of capital letters.
Such habits, in the chaplain's eyes, constitute evidence of a macabre and unhealthy enthusiasm for science.
And:
It is Mrs Jakes's opinion that all men are fools. She holds this opinion in the sense that Pythagoras held an opinion about right-angled triangles and Copernicus about planets.
The novel's tone and subject matter feels authentic to the time period, and comes complete with articles and ads from the local paper that utilize the Random and somewhat Bizarre use of capital letters.
July 22, 2020
I read the Dutch edition, 'Het andere kind', which was translated from the English book The Sooterkin. My full review in Dutch is here.
The story revolves around the mystery surrounding the birth of a sooterkin to a poor woman in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), a creature which resembles a seal. I found the book initially tough going due to the style and the fact that there were so many characters; it reminded me of Charles Dickens, or perhaps Jane Austen. Unfortunately, none of the characters were appealing, but the tale is told humourously, and I gradually became immersed in the story. I particularly enjoyed the asides provided by the excerpts from the newspaper, which reminded me of a column in my own local newspaper. It was also interesting to read the definition of a sooterkin, especially as it has links to the Netherlands.
The story revolves around the mystery surrounding the birth of a sooterkin to a poor woman in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), a creature which resembles a seal. I found the book initially tough going due to the style and the fact that there were so many characters; it reminded me of Charles Dickens, or perhaps Jane Austen. Unfortunately, none of the characters were appealing, but the tale is told humourously, and I gradually became immersed in the story. I particularly enjoyed the asides provided by the excerpts from the newspaper, which reminded me of a column in my own local newspaper. It was also interesting to read the definition of a sooterkin, especially as it has links to the Netherlands.
December 12, 2008
This was a so-so read. I was really only kept reading it to see if the seal pup was ever returned home. The ending was not worth the time. It was very disappointing and the author never spoke about Sarah Dyer again even though she was as heartbroken as Ned that Arthur had been kidnapped. There was no resolution for her character. The same goes for William Dyer. Ned's character was semi-resolved having found the pup and watching him return to the sea, but even that left questions. In fact the entire story left too many questions unresolved and there were too many characters that were grossly under-developed. Namely, Mrs. Jakes, but even the main characters needed more substance to them
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2014
I expected something a little more fantastic than a mostly-fiction with a strange twist sort of story. The local color is vibrant (though I didn't think the American was particularly accurate. I will admit, however, I am not an expert on the Bostonian dialect of the early 1800's) and enjoyable and really the best part of the book. The story itself is a bit hard to follow, as it has several tangents and wraps up with an anti-climax in the last few pages.
May 29, 2008
It's a story of a woman that gives birth to a seal that is suspected to be a mythical sooterkin. The story takes place in Tazmania in the 1800's and sort of winds around peoples lives and how they all intersect.
May 5, 2009
Pretty easy read. A lot of exposition and then a really sharp climax/resolution to things. I like a bit of a longer resolution than the book gave me, it kind of felt like the editor said "hey, we've got to chop off 20 pages!"
June 25, 2009
The premise for this story was promising ~ a woman gives birth to what appears to be, for all intents and purposes, a seal. Unfortunately, the prose was a bit thick at times for me and didn't really allow me to enjoy the story.
December 18, 2009
Het thema van het boek is heel mooi en eigenlijk ook de uitwerking. Toch vond ik het lastig om dit achter elkaar uit te lezen. Misschien was het de schrijfstijl, misschien teveel personages. Wel jammer, maar het eindgevoel was toch oke
August 3, 2010
One of the two books I read in one day about Australia's penal colonies in the 18th century. Life there was horrific but all kinds of natural or unnatural (the platypus) wonders abounded. This book is v. good, just not as good as the next one....
July 31, 2011
I finally remembered what the hell this book was called ... actually, the Amazon search engine did when I typed in "woman giving birth to a seal." Anyways, I remember seeing this, and much like Big Fish, thinking, aw man ... this is gonna be great. But, also like Big Fish, it really wasn't.
April 11, 2012
Another book that's been on my shelf for a long time so I gave it another try. Still couldn't get into it; I thought the dialogue was well done, but couldn't really connect with any of the characters, and not much seemed to happen.
October 16, 2015
One of the worst books I have ever read. I stuck through it because it was small, but this book was just miserable. It made no sense and was written in a weird old English. I am an avid reader but I just did not understand this one.
January 21, 2009
this book is probably amoung the weirdest I've ever read
March 22, 2010
Bizarre. I managed to get half way through before abandoning this book. It just didn't hold my attention, although Gilling has a way with characterisation.
October 12, 2011
Although the premise was interesting, I didn't really enjoy this book very much. Even though it was pretty short, it seemed a lot longer than it was.
October 18, 2013
A strange tale. A tale about a seal pup born to a woman was bound to be. Gilling's book was full of strange creatures, the seal pup being the least of them.
January 31, 2017
well...ha. it was a fun little book, not in the subject matter but I had some good chuckles.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews