Sophie Lewis
Paperbacks
THE original bequest, and the seed of this turbulent family history, is a tranche of uncultivated land marked out in 1850s Australia, management of which eventually falls to the widowed Emmeline Leslie, who keeps it up even as she embarks on a life-changing journey across Europe. Another chance to make a family and a life for herself appears in the figure of Danish sea-captain Frederik Ziege, but Emmeline's happiness will be short-lived, as he seems fated to die, like her first husband, of consumption. This is a novel peopled by voyagers and survivors. Disease of all sorts is a constant adversary and home is never more than a temporary stopping place. De Falbe makes a charming and convincing story out of this doomed love affair, neatly weaving extracts from letters and family papers into a tissue of fictional detail.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553
'The authors do not shrink from spelling out the scale of the killings when the Rhodesians made long-distance raids on guerrilla camps in Mozambique and Zambia.'
Xan Smiley on how Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/what-the-secret-agent-saw