Shellybanks

Kate Delaney is on holiday in Europe with Liam when she receives a message from her Aunt Dolores stating that her partner, Kevin, had died. Kate and Liam immediately travel to Dublin to help her aunt. One day, when with other family members, they go for a walk along Shellybanks beach to the Poolbeg Lighthouse, the walk revives memories of the past for Delores and she decides it is time to reveal her story to her niece.

Dolores reveals the horrific mistreatment that she and other girls received when they attended a supposed cookery school run by a group within the Catholic Church. She also reveals that she had a baby which was stolen from her and given to another family. That baby would now be thirty-five and Dolores wants to meet her.

Dolores and Kate take the story to the garda and an historical case investigation is undertaken. Kate, who is a journalist, also assists in part of the investigation. Obstacles presented by people involved in past events continually obstruct the revealing of the truth but, as more women tell their story, the mistreatment of young girls by organisations associated with the church is revealed. Just as she has lost all hope, eventually Dolores meets her daughter.

Many books have been written about past actions and power of the Catholic Church, particularly in Ireland but also in other countries, and Shellybanks by Louise Milligan can be added to the collection. Shellybanks is a novel about young women working for no pay and being treated as slaves. It deals with continued abuse by those in positions of power plus neglect as well as forced adoption of babies. These events are hopefully now in the past but it is important that people are aware of these past actions of some church authorities which are part of Ireland's history.

Ireland: when the Church is the state - Catholics for Choice 

Shellybanks Beach - Trip Advisor 

The Great South Wall Walk - Wild Irish Walks

Cold River

We first met Senior Constable Sally White, a police officer at Edenville, a small town in the Victorian High Country, in the novel, The Creeper, by Margaret Hickey. She had recently returned to work when the police were alerted that a young hiker was missing. Search parties were immediately arranged with little success. 

Then one morning Sally finds a woman waiting for her to open the police station. She is there with enquiries about her daughter, Astrid, who had disappeared when skiing in the mountains two years earlier. Were the police still looking for her daughter? Sally adds this cold case to her list of investigations. Could they be connected.

In Cold River, Margaret Hickey provides the reader with another fast paced tension driven crime novel with a range of dubious characters living in a sometimes dangerous environment. As Sally tries to find what happened to the missing people she uncovers a secret in part of the local community where money is made from chop chop, the illegal growing and selling of tobacco with links to crime gangs. Sally also discovers information that will impact not only the local community but also the police force. She has two choices - to keep the secret or release the information to authorities. The impact of the decision is left to the imagination of the reader.

For readers living in Victoria the setting for the book will bring back memories of the police search  for fugitive, Dezi Freeman, last year. 

Villa Coco

Set in Italy, Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer is the story of a young American who recently completed a course in archives and records management and takes on the job of recording a collection of objects and papers kept in a villa. At least that is what he thinks his project is. Instead he finds himself assisting a ninety-two year old lady in a variety of tasks in her house and garden. She also tells him to learn Italian.

During the novel the reader meets an array of family members and friends of the Baronessa and gradually learns stories about her life and the reasons for her sometimes bizarre decisions made from time to time.  The young man becomes the assistant to the Baonessa in a villa in need of repair and encounters a parade of often eccentric characters. He is eventually allowed to start working on the task he is employed to undertake but this work is continually interrupted with the need to work in the garden, help with the olive harvest and assist a neighbour make wine.

The story builds slowly and is revealed through descriptions of the house and the neighbouring environment as well as the observations of the Baronessa and her relationships, past and present. The young man learns that his employer has a mission she is determined to accomplish and he will learn of his proposed involvement all in good time. Meanwhile the young man begins to learn more about himself and to evaluate the path that his life may take.

Villa Coco is a novel to just relax and enjoy reading, allowing the story to reveal itself at its own pace. It is a story of love and compassion often told with a quiet humour as the Baronessa is determined to complete her planned task.

Murder at Thornwood Park

Set in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, historian, Rose McHugh, receives information that the museum that she manages has been provided access to historical records relating to Thornwood Park after the death of the estate's owner. Reading through some of the documents retrieved from the house, Rose discovers information suggesting the possible disappearance of young women who visited the house in the early 1940s. 

Rose and her friends, including Jazzy and George plus her sister Kim, endeavour to uncover what really happened at the property. As a historian she is particularly interested in the history of the hall and the family that lived there, especially in the early years of the Second World War when members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force training centre were housed in the district. The tension builds when  it is obvious that someone is determined to stop Rose and her friends investigating Thornwood Park's past.

Murder at Thornwood Park by Joan Sauers is the third crime novel featuring the investigations of Rose McHugh. The first two titles in the series are Echo Lake and Whisky Valley.

Henry Goes Bush

Henry Goes Bush by Wayne Marshall is a mad romp into the unknown, into unpredictable alternative worlds which look the same - almost. The novel is initially based on events that occurred in the life of Australian author and poet, Henry Lawson, in 1892 when he was sent to the outback city of Bourke by his editor to explore the outback and more importantly learn to control his alcohol intake. Then the author's imagination takes over inventing an almost wild west series of events that begin when Henry decides to explore a mysterious tunnel hidden in a back yard.

Like Alice in Alice in Wonderland Henry slides down the tunnel to discover that he has arrived not only in another version of Bourke but also another version of the people who live in the real world. He soon discovers that whenever there is an earthquake the entrance to the tunnel moves so consequently, during the novel, he encounters many aspects of the town and its people.

Henry Lawson was an alcoholic and the experiences in the book may reference Henry's mental state at the time. Who knows. Meanwhile the reader needs to just suspend belief and enjoy the adventure.

More about the real Henry Lawson:

Henry Lawson - Australian Dictionary of Biography

Henry Lawson: poet of the people -  State Library of New South Wales

Portrait of Australian poet Henry Lawson - National Archives of Australia 

About Henry Lawson - Henry Lawson Festival 

About Henry Lawson - Henry Lawson Society  

Henry Lawson - This is Australia

The Poet of Australia - National Library of Australia 

Book Reviews

Henry Goes Bush - Readings 

Henry Goes Bush - ANZ LitLovers 

Excerpt from Henry Lawson: a stranger on the Darling by Robyn Lee Burrows  

Land

Although primarily set in Ireland in the mid 1860s, Land by Maggie O'Farrell is in many ways timeless. The novel is primarily the story of a family in Ireland beginning in 1865. Tomás works as a surveyor for the British who occupy the country and want maps of the country updated with latest information. He takes his ten-year-old son, Liam, with him to assist in the project. Then, on the peninsula, Tomás enters a small copse and is never the same again. When Tomás and Liam return home the decision is finally made by Tomás that he will move the family to the peninsula to live. 

As well as telling the story of Tomás and his family over the following years, the novel takes the reader back to the time of The Great Hunger (1845-1852) when food was scarce in Ireland and it is estimated that more than one million people in Ireland died and approximately the same number emigrated to Australia, Canada or the USA. 

The family eventually accepts their life in the country but the children are aware of a supernatural presence in the area, especially near the copse. The author introduces another story that took place perhaps one thousand years earlier when Brith also encountered the mysterious copse and the events that take place continue their presence when Tomás moves his family to the region. The land is definitely a special place. Six members of the family move to the peninsula but by the end of the novel the family had dispersed with one person remaining. 

In Land Maggie O'Farrell combines a look at events in Irish history in the second half of the nineteenth century with a study of a family struggling to survive in harsh times. The novel is about the effects of loss, separation, reunion, colonization and tragedy. But throughout the novel the land is the focal point throughout its history, keeping its secrets intact. No matter what happens the land will remain.

Additional Information: 

Learn about the Great Hunger - Ireland's Great Hunger Museum

The Great Hunger - The Irish Memorial

The Great Famine -  UK Parliament

Irish Potato Famine - The History Place 

Some Reviews:

Maggie O'Farrell's Land - Oxford Review of Books

Land - Harvard Review Online 

Maggie O'Farrell flattens 19th century Ireland  into a theme-pub cliche in her new novel - The Conversation 

Land by Maggie O'Farrell review - The Guardian 

Domination: the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity

In Domination: the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity, Alice Roberts investigates changes in religious  beliefs during the Roman Empire, especially during the final two hundred years, and the possible causes for those changes. She examines how a small sect formed from within the Jewish religion grew to a major enterprise not only promoting religious beliefs but also influencing economic conditions and the power basis within ruling structures in many countries.

The book begins with a discussion about the early days of Christian beliefs which travelled between countries that traded with each other, in this case parts of Wales and southern England (especially Cornwall) with Brittany and parts of France once known as Gaul. Using results of archaeological digs and referring to some of the few written accounts that have survived from or about that time period, the author examines the spread of Christian beliefs in these regions before continuing the investigation in other regions of the Roman Empire.

Main topics include The End of the Empire, The Heart of the Empire and the Business of the Empire and how these aspects merged together to form a powerful and prominent force affecting the rule and decision making of most European countries.

A select bibliography and index is provided in this thought provoking book about how the Christian religion has influenced past history and, in many countries, is still doing so today.