On a beach not far from the isolated settlement of Sydney in 1797, a fishing boat picks up three shipwreck survivors, distressed and terribly injured. They have walked hundreds of miles across a landscape whose features–and inhabitants–they have no way of comprehending. They have lost fourteen companions along the way. Their accounts of the ordeal are evasive. It is Lieutenant Joshua Grayling’s … Grayling’s task to investigate the story. He comes to realise that those fourteen deaths were contrived by one calculating mind and, as the full horror of the men’s journey emerges, he begins to wonder whether the ruthless killer poses a danger to his own family.
Jock Serong’s first novel, Quota, won the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. The Rules of Backyard Cricketwas shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Award for Fiction, and was a finalist in the 2017 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards and the 2017 Indie Book Awards. On the Java Ridgewon the Colin Roderick Award and the international Staunch Book Prize in 2018. Jock lives with his family on Victoria’s far west coast.
‘Serong’s characters are compelling and, in his reimagining, Preservation gives voice to those who, in the literature of the time, were largely voiceless.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘Serong’s description of the landscape, the encounters with indigenous groups and his finely drawn descriptions of the players in the story makes this a gripping and compelling novel that will justly draw comparisons with Kate Grenville’s acclaimed The Secret River.’ Mark Rubbo, Readings
‘Jock Serong delivers a story of survival and treachery that examines the principles on which the colony of New South Wales was founded and the impact invading attitudes had on the land’s indigenous population.’ 2SER
‘Serong’s prose is evocative, his dialogue convincing.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘Preservationis an impressive novel, one that revels in the power of narrative to enlighten, horrify and enthral.’ Australian
‘Full of tension and menace.’ Readings
‘Serong is a talented storyteller.’ Booklist
‘One of Australia’s most innovative and ambitious crime writers.’ NZ Listener
more
4 and 1 / 2 stars
It is 1797 in the new settlement of Sydney when three bedraggled and injured men arrive in the area. This is their story.
The ship upon which the journey was undertaken was purchased and renamed the Sydney Cove. It left Calcutta with several people and a cargo primarily of rum and set out for Sydney, Van Dieman’s Land (now known as Australia). The manager of the company that owns the ship is William Clark. He is the somewhat dissolute nephew of a shipping family who has come to Calcutta to “make his fortune.” However he sets about spending money to such a degree that he runs this previously profitable company on the rocks. He decides to take one last gamble in this latest scheme – rum running. Also on board is a shipment of tea. John Figge the tea merchant – or is he?
When three survivors of the shipwreck of the Sydney Cove wander into Sydney, Lieutenant Joshua Grayling is assigned by Governor Hunter to question three survivors who claim they walked some 550 miles from the site of the wreck. They claim to have left the wreck with fourteen others whom they left some miles back. They repaired a longboat from the wrecked ship on a little island they named Preservation. When the seventeen headed for Sydney, they left thirty-two men behind on Preservation.
When Grayling first questions Figge, he gets a mercurial response for the man seems both calm and irritable at the same time. Something about the man badly bothers him. Then Clark begins to tell Grayling his story all the while cleaning up his part in the voyage.
Then there is Srinivas who is a sixteen-year old lascar, or manservant, who apparently doesn’t speak English. But wait…does he?
Grayling develops a sharp suspicion that Clark and Figge are not telling the truth of their long walk. Clark is a liar and perhaps worse, Figge is a very bad man who the reader loves to hate.
This is a very well written and plotted novel. It was a little difficult to follow at first for it switched points of view without notice and I had to read a little to discover who was speaking. I was fascinated by the story that is based on a true event. Mr. Serong admits that he had to fill in a little of what might have happened with conjecture of his own, but I feel that he did a very fine job. I was a little disappointed to discover that the reader did not learn more about Mr. Figge’s origins. But Mr. Serong summed it up well when he said that, “Sooner or later, the land does everyone in.” I can only hope so. Mmmm, must be still pretty wrapped up in the story. This is my first Jack Serong novel, but it won’t be my last. I immediately went to Amazon to look for others books by this author.
I want to thank NetGalley and Text Publishing/Text Publishing Company for forwarding to me a copy of this absolutely fascinating and entrancing book fir me to read, enjoy and review.