The Commandant

(, New edition)

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Description

"He jumped down to the wharf and walked alone out of the torchlight to stand behind Letty. Frances looked from his face to her sister's, and once again felt the weakening flush of fear. She was too much at the mercy of her company, and was about to discover which of her unpredictable selves would advance to meet these two strangers." The penal colony of Moreton Bay is under the command of Patrick Logan, a man not afraid of brutal discipline. But his rule is being questioned and the arrival of his sister-in-law Frances will change everything. The Commandant is an unforgettable tale of power, duty and humanity.

Reviews

'Quietly astonishing: enthralls, entertains and gratifies on every level.' Helen Garner 'The happiness a consummate novelist bestows upon a reader-the feeling that under no circumstance can you bear not to know what happens next, nor can you bear to come to the end of the tale-this is Jessica Anderson's great narrative gift. The Commandant was published in England in 1975 when its English publisher put a bodice-ripper jacket on it. Today it can be published in a different way, in a different country, and be seen for the masterpiece it is.' Carmen Callil

Author Bio

Jessica Anderson wrote stories and adapted novels for radio before she published her first novel, An Ordinary Lunacy, in 1963. In 1978, she won the Miles Franklin Literary Award for Tirra Lirra by the River, and again in 1980 for The Impersonators, which also won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction. In 1987 her story collection, Stories from the Warm Zone, won the Age Book of the Year award. Jessica Anderson died in July 2010, at the age of ninety-three.