Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award 2008, and bought for DrCris's Miles Franklin Challenge.

"In the remote outback of North-west Australia, English anthropologist Nicholas Keene and his wife Stella raise a curious child, Perdita. Her childhood is far from ordinary; a shack in the wilderness, with a distant father burying himself in books and an unstable mother whose knowledge of Shakespeare forms the backbone of the girl’s limited education. Emotionally adrift, Perdita develops a friendship with an Aboriginal girl, Mary, with whom she will share a very special bond. She appears content with her unusual family life in this remote corner of the globe until Nicholas Keene is discovered murdered."

Normally I wouldn't have chosen to buy a book with a title like "Sorry"... a word with a hell of a stigma in Australia, evoking as it does the whole thorny issue of reconciliation between white and native Australians. I am totally for reconciliation, but I am tired of being made to feel guilty about the topic without useful suggestions for how to achieve it.
However, this book is by Gail Jones, author of "Sixty Lights". So I will give it a go.

Bookring order:

tqd
jubby
livrecache
freelunch
DrCris
FreePages
freelunch (yep, again)
Fleebo

Handed to tqd.

Thanks Fleebo! As soon as I get over my trashy crime/space opera phase, I'll get right into this.

Like Fleebo, I was a bit wary of this book, due to the title: it definitely suggested a fairly heavy-going polemical rant. However, this was a wonderful book. It is about atonement and apologies, and it is about blackfella and whitefella relationships, but it's on a very human and intimate level, dealing with Perdita and Mary's relationship.

Perdita is the unexpected child from two english people who are (for all the wrong reasons) living outside of Broome in the lead-up to world war 2. And Mary is the convent-educated native girl who looks after her. They consider themselves sisters, and this book is about their friendship. While Mary is part of the stolen generation, this is a mere small part of the book, just something to reflect upon, not the whole reason for the book to exist.

And this is also the story of Perdita and her mother, the not-really-there Stella. And the story of the murder of Perdita's father, Nicholas. (Hey, I'm not giving anything away there, it starts the book!)

The murder is the weak part of this book for me, because it's all supposed to be suspicious about who killed Nicholas, but I got it from the start. The red herrings were just never obvious, I don't think I noticed one of them, so when we find out who was the murderer, I was surprised that all the characters had it wrong. Oh well. Maybe I've just read too many books with murders at the beginning, and the rest of the book spent finding out whodunnit. I'm getting to be an expert!

But it was beautifully written, on a number of occasions (the ultimate ending in particular) had me staring out of bus windows, insisting that I wasn't crying, no, I just had something in my eye, that's all. It's a great slice of Australian history I knew nothing about (others might; maybe I just daydreamed through all my history lessons back in school), and I am recommending it far and wide to everyone and anyone who will listen.

Although one word of warning: I was reading at the same time The Book Thief which also concerns a young girl during world war 2. Every now and then I got totally confused by muddling up the families. :)

Jubby reckons she's still up for this one, so I'll contact her on Sunday, and if she's still sure she wants a book with a baby due any day now, I'll pop it in the post to her on Monday.

Thanks for the great read, Fleebo!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Popped in the post today to Jubby (I confirmed that, yes, she was still interested in the book first!). Happy travelling, little book, and happy reading, jubby!

Yay!

I received this in the post today. Thank you TQD and Fleebo. I still have 'Landscape of farewell' as well to post onto Livrecache.

I aim to read this (quickishly) and post both off together.

I've nearly finished!

Thank you for being patient with me... will journal and post on to Livrecache in the very near future.

Thanks, jubby, and all who've journalled before you. (I'm guessing that motherhood has, for the moment at least, put an end to your glorious raves about what you've read.)

I'm really looking forward to reading this book. I've heard such good things about it -- aside from tqd's entry. I do have a swag of bookrings before it, but I shall get to it as quickly as I can.

Heavens, I'm sorry everyone to have held this book up as long as I have. I found it only yesterday, 2 months after we'd moved house, in a bag that I'd overlooked unpacking.

I started to read it over the weekend, but it didn't immediately grab me. I feel too guilty to persevere, so I'll send it on to freelunch, as I have another book to send him anyway.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Part of the Miles Franklin award bookring, finally moving on.

received today, thanks livrecache

I'll try to squeeze this one in before Christmas, but if I don't manage it should be on its way before the end of January...

other books in this challenge include:
Love Without Hope - Landscape of Farewell - The Memory Room - The Time We Have Taken - The Fern Tattoo

well I've been dodging and avoiding reading this book for four days now - I've read about one-third of it and it just isn't me.

time to move on to something else.

I'll send it on to DrCris soon...

Arrived out of the blue with a package from Freelunch. i am very behind on bookrings at the moment. It goes to the bottom of the pile. If it languishes there for too long, I will send it on.

Livrecache requested this off my TBR, as she didn't get a good read of it the first time around. I sent it to her about a week ago, and forgot to journal it. Apologies for running out of order, but I have two books ahead of this on Mount TBR, so I thought it might be a thrifty use of reading time.

Thanks to jubby, I found that the people who are living in our old house had been stock piling books addressed to me as they didn't have any return addresses for them. I have now learned that a mail re-direct does not include parcels. Thanks, Australia Post!

But what a huge relief. I'll read this weekend, despite the noise of the Grand Prix, and return it to Dr Cris. Sorry for the delay, everyone.

(And jubby, the person you spoke to today has sent the books that arrived today at her house back to you.)

I was totally engrossed by this story. I'm not sure why it didn't grab me when I had it before.

The comments TQD made apply equally for me, but as she's so eloquently expressed her thoughts, I'll just add "Same".

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Returning to DrCris to take up its bookring place again.

Arrived back with me after an exciting adventure. I will read this one, after livrecache and tqd's stirring recommendations. And the fact that I have loved every Miles Franklin so far.

I have been "working" on this book for a long time now. It travels with me everywhere, but it seems I rarely pull it out to read - preferring almost anything else, magazines, books, feeds, whatever. It is a pity because in my conscious brain I am enjoying this, but obviously not involved with it.

I will pass this one on now. I hope FreePages gets swept up in it.

Popped in the post today.

Amazing, this arrived overnight!

Must be some sort of postal record.

Thanks Dr Chris. I've got one and a half books ahead of it and then I'll dive into this.

Wow, I loved this one! I couldn't put it down, read it overnight.
Magical, especially for anyone who has found solace through reading.
At times, I felt a bit like I was reading I know why the caged bird sings. There are obvious difference tho'. This is a novel, but it is a comming of age story, where reading helps endure adversity and reading out loud helps a child to find their voice.
Then there is so much more....

A fabulous novel. Thanks for the opportunity to read it.

On to Freelunch soon.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:


Placed in the mail box today.

If you enjoy it half as much as I did Freelunch your in for a good read :-)

Thanks for the bookring Fleebo!

...and its back with me again. thanks FreePages, this time I will read it :)

I've decided to send this one off (again!) unread. my reading has tapered off in the past six months and in order to kick-start it I'm avoiding anything that might expand my horizons as a reader, its strictly comfort-zone material for me for the forseeable future..

I'll post it home as soon as I have an address from Fleebo

shipped home today..

Received safely in the mail from freelunch, along with another book and an Allen & Unwin sampler. Thank you so much.
Thanks everyone for participating in the bookring, and I suppose I had better read it myself now!

A very good book, well worth the effort.