The Colony is a clever and exquisitely written story of colonialism set on a remote island off the western coast of Ireland.
The plot centres on the conflict between a visiting French professor, a linguist, and a visiting English artist preparing for a major London exhibition. Each of these two visitors is exploiting the few remaining Island inhabitants in their own distinctive way.
I found this a deeply moving and evocative novel – with occasional touches of humour – and I have already listened to twice. The relationship between the local boy – learning to paint so he can get away from the island – and the treacherous English artist was particularly moving. The audiobook that I listened to was read by Stephen Hogan, in his beautiful Irish accent.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022
'Vivid and memorable.' SARAH MOSS 'Luminous.' Observer 'I utterly ADORED it.' MARIAN KEYES
He handed the easel to the boatman, reaching down the pier wall towards the sea.
Mr Lloyd has decided to travel to the island by boat without engine - the authentic experience.
Unbeknownst to him, Mr Masson will also soon be arriving for the summer. Both will strive to encapsulate the truth of this place - one in his paintings, the other by capturing its speech, the language he hopes to preserve.
This is a book that I loved for its ambition, cleverness, great writing, and its occasional humour.
The novel tells the story of the life of Virginia Woolf’s husband, Leonard, and at the same time relates the story of a woman called Alice during the COVID pandemic who is writing a story of the life of Leonard Woolf. The title comes from Leonard Woolf’s description of sexual love – this devastating fever – but the novel is far more than this, including major events such as the COVID epidemic, Spanish influenza, life prior to World War 1, and the threat of climate change.
This breadth of vision is lightened by the ‘front’ story that includes amusing exchanges between Alice and her agent.
Sometimes you need to go deep into the past, to make sense of the present.
Alice had not expected to spend the first twenty years of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: was the world's technology about to crash down around her? The world's technology did not crash. But there were worse disasters to come: Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars.…
I loved this novel for its scope and ambition. It is a wise and challenging book with a clear vision of what our future might hold.
This vision is communicated via four seemingly disparate storylines about four women across four different time periods, beginning in a 1933 meat works, before moving to an old age home in a 2020 lockdown and forward into a factory job where big brother is watching you, and then on to scenes of environmental degradation.
Readers who loved Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr or Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell will love this book by Australian writer Kate Mildenhall.
An epic, kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread and their determination to shape their own stories, from the acclaimed author of The Mother Fault.
One of the lucky few with a job during the Depression, Peggy’s just starting out in life. She’s a bagging girl at the Angliss meatworks in Footscray, a place buzzing with life as well as death, where the gun slaughterman Jack has caught her eye – and she his.
How is her life connected to Hilda’s, almost a hundred years later, locked inside during a plague, or La’s, further…
Australia, 1972. Following the death of her beloved Aunt Hilda, widow Clare Barclay inherits Bellevue, an historic property in the Blue Mountains township of Numbulla, Australia. Giving up her teaching job to move to the mountains, Clare plans to restore the house to its original glory. She also hopes to track down a box of missing documents that may shed light on why husband Jack secretly second-mortgaged their former home.
Clare makes friends with the locals, including a young boy, Joe, and soon hears of plans to redevelop Numbulla and to exploit the land bordering the protected wilderness area. As she joins the protest against the rezoning, it’s clear someone doesn’t want her there and they’ll do anything to stop her…
Industry Reviews In Bellevue, Booth… create(s) believable characters enmeshed in convincing real-life struggles. She expertly builds an undercurrent of tension and uncertainty, while simultaneously constructing a strong sense of community among those who unite against the developers. The Canberra Times
Alison Booth writes exquisite literary fiction, astutely observing the nature and behaviour of her believable, often flawed characters. The Riot Act: March Book Shelf
This fine Australian novel's set in 1972 when Clare Barclay inherits Bellevue, Aunt Hilda's rundown property in Numbulla in the Blue Mountains. The descriptions of the area are breathtaking, but there's trouble in paradise. When Clare rejects a shifty developer's bid to buy Bellevue, he then tries to drive her out. She's also looking for a box of documents to solve a puzzle her late husband left behind. Luckily, she's been befriended by young Joe who forms a bond with her, and he tells part of the moving story. The Peterborough Telegraph
