The World Beneath in Aussie Readers

Oct 11, 2010 Mish rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-authors

The World Beneath won the People’s Choice Award for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2010 and I think she did a splendid job in exploring the life of a dysfunctional family. Rich and Sandy went through a bitter separated almost 14 years ago, leaving her to raise their only daughter Sophie single-handedly. Rich has been virtually estranged from Sophie’s life with only the occasional letter here and there. It is only on Sophie’s 15th birthday that Rich decides he would like to get to know his dau The World Beneath won the People’s Choice Award for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2010 and I think she did a splendid job in exploring the life of a dysfunctional family. Rich and Sandy went through a bitter separated almost 14 years ago, leaving her to raise their only daughter Sophie single-handedly. Rich has been virtually estranged from Sophie’s life with only the occasional letter here and there. It is only on Sophie’s 15th birthday that Rich decides he would like to get to know his daughter better and build a relationship that he invites her on a hiking trip through the Tasmanian wilderness. Sandy is furious that Rich has come back in their lives, bring back memories that she would rather forget. She is hesitant about letting Sophie go - Can she trust this man after all these years to look after her daughter? Rich assures her that he can and Sophie is determined to go.

The story is told by the point of view of these three characters and I think the author did an amazing job in allowing you to get an in-depth understanding of their personalities and getting inside their heads. But I must warn you that they are not all likable. I thought the parents were weak and pathetic idiot. Many times I just wanted to thump over the head and knock some sense into them. They were so self-absorbed in their own lives, stuck in a time warp that they were completely oblivious to what is happening to Sophie and her needs and wants. I like Sophie and had a lot of sympathy for her. She was perhaps the strongest and most sensible character out of the 3, yet for a 15 year old she carried far too much of her mothers’ burden of insecurity and responsibility which caused significant distress to her wellbeing.

The only let down of the book (and the reason why I didn’t give it 4 stars) was the authors vivid description of the landscape. Even through it was beautiful to read in some parts, I felt however in others it was just too long and drawn out. Otherwise it was a lovely story about family life of love, loneliness and then hope, and looking beyond yourself and rediscovering the most important people in our lives.
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Jul 06, 2012 Penni Russon rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle

As a seven year old my best friend and I made our own "No Dams" placards and marched around my bush suburb of Hobart - we also took a handmade petition around saying simply "Save the Wilderness". The Franklin Dam is probably my earliest memory of politics (apart from our pet budgie named Whitlam), so I was drawn to this novel in which the Dam protests feature as the zenith of two dysfunctional adult lives, much to the chagrin of their shared daughter, Sophie, who is a site of tension but also of ...more

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