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This is a haunting and sometimes dark
story set in the outback of Australia during the Great Depression.
It chronicles the desperately hard life of the Flute family. Harper
Flute, the narrator of the story, gives a grippingly realistic
account of a family mired in poverty, mixed with a surreal account
of the strange life of her brother Tin.
The family consists of parents Court
and Thora, oldest daughter Audrey, oldest son Devon, middle daughter
Harper, younger brother Tin, and new baby brother Caffy.
The family lives on a farm that the
government gave them after Court fought in the Great War. He knows
nothing about farming, so he does nothing about the land. The only
income the family has is from trapping rabbits and selling their
pelts. Their diet consists of boiled rabbit most every day.
The story opens with 7-year-old Harper
introducing us to her brother Tin, who she says was "born on
Thursday and so fated to his wanderings" and is by far the strangest
member of the family. The day Caffy is born, Harper is told to take
4-year-old Tin and go play somewhere away from the house. They go to
the creek, where Tin gets temporarily buried in a collapsed creek
bank.
It is after this incident that Tin
begins his digging and tunneling, which his father considers a gift.
The family sees him only occasionally, and he gradually becomes
barely recognizable as a human. This part is very hard to take at
first and seems strange combined with the realism of the rest of the
story, but eventually it is more acceptable.
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Things look like they may be looking up
when Court is notified that he is the sole heir of his estranged
father’s will. Their hopes are soon dashed when he returns home with
almost nothing after paying his father’s debts.
Against Thora’s wishes and the advice
of Vandry Cable, a wealthy neighbor, Court buys three cows and a
horse for Devon. This causes a lot of trouble between Court and
Thora.
Then one day, without warning, their
house collapses and falls into a hole in the ground. They soon
realize that the reason it fell was because Tin had dug so many
tunnels under the house that the earth couldn’t hold it any longer.
The family is eventually reunited under one roof only because of the
help and kindness of neighbors.
Audrey becomes romantically interested
in a young man who has come from the city to the country to try to
get work. Things seem to be going better when tragedy strikes again
and Caffy dies in an accident. Devon eventually leaves home, and
Audrey goes to work for Vandry Cable. Things don’t seem quite right
with Audrey’s situation, and we soon find out why in a page-turning
climax.
This book is a strange story and is not
for everyone, but at the same time it is fascinating and definitely
worth reading. Sonya Hartnett has written several other novels and
has received many prestigious awards in her native Australia. This
book is recommended for eighth-graders and up.
For more
information about this book and others, visit the library at 725
Pekin St. or call (217) 732-5732.
[Linda Harmon, Lincoln
Public Library District] |
