The Settlement

(Paperback)

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Description

On the windswept point of an island at the edge of Van Diemens Land, the Commandant huddles with a small force of white men and women. He has gathered together, under varying degrees of coercion and duress, the last of the Tasmanians, or so he believes. His purpose is to save themfrom a number of things, but most pressingly from the murderous intent of the pastoral settlers on their country.

The orphans Whelk and Pipi, fighting for their survival against the malevolent old man they know as the Catechist, watch as almost everything proves resistant to the Commandants will. The wind, the spread of disease, the strange black dog that floats in on the prow of a wrecked shipBut above all the chief, the leader of the exiles, before whom the Commandant performs a sordid dance of intimacy and betrayal.

In The Settlement, Jock Serong reimagines in urgent, compelling prose the ill-fated exploits of George Augustus Robinson at the settlement of Wybalennaa venture whose blinkered, self-interested cruelty might stand for the colonial enterprise itself.

Reviews

`The Settlement is a shocking but perversely beautiful evocation of the endurance and dignity of Aboriginal resistance to the sadism of the colonys God and guns. Its gripping plot, extraordinary Black and white characters, and elegant prose will haunt you long after the last page.' * Paul Daley, author of Jesustown and Guardian writer *
'There is some kind of magic in the way Jock Serong conjures places and times and people.' * Lucy Treloar *
'Serong is among many writers, including Tony Birch, Bruce Pascoe and Kate Grenville, looking closer at the history of colonisation and the narratives that have been handed down as authorised versions, but that need much closer scrutiny.' * Herald Sun *
Serongs prose is evocative, his dialogue convincing. * Sydney Morning Herald *
Grips from the first page. It's unsentimental, truthful and profound all in a milieu effortlessly imagined. * Don Watson *
An extraordinarily vivid imagining of one of the most significant encounters in Australian history. * Amanda Lohrey, Miles Franklin Award-winning author of The Labyrinth *
Serong's finest work, and a story Australians should hear. * Robbie Arnott *
[The Settlement is] compelling to read, and also powered by Serong's descriptive, muscular proseReckoning comes in blazing moments of truth-telling, where the reality of this colonising project cannot be deniedThis is a book that doesnt let us readers off the hooknor should it. Jackie Tang, * Readings *
[Jock Serong] is undertaking important work of reckoning with Australias troubled history. [The Settlement] is part of that reckoning an absolute must read. * Better Reading *
[A] darkly poignant, sadly true and painfully engaging story that rarely, if ever, makes it into Australian history books. * Robert Goodman, Pile by the Bed *
'Devastating[Serong] animates the benighted settlement through pungent prose and uncanny summoning of placeA novel of empathy and intelligence. * Age *
'Traces of Charles Dickens, Cormac McCarthy, and Patrick White thread through his prose, which is often genre-based the agile plotting and unexpected metaphor of Raymond Chandler is apparent hereThe Settlement is deeply connected to history and prior literature. * Australian Book Review *
Compellingpowerful and evocative[The Settlement] gives you thorough understanding of the power wielded by the early colonists, and the choices forced on those who didnt have it. * Good Reading *

This is a book that must be read, from an author whose writing has reached new heights.

* Herald Sun *
Serong is a wonderful writerhe retains the gift of propulsive plots and gripping narratives. And readers interested in stories that face the complexity and complicity of our colonial past paired with beautiful writing will be intrigued by his latest novel. * InDaily *
Moving and devastating. * RN Book Show *
To the settlements confined, Serong invests appropriate human dignity denied by their oppressors and their history. * Guardian *

Author Bio

Jock Serongs novels have received the ARA Historical Novel Prize, the Colin Roderick Award, the Ned Kelly Award for First Fiction and, internationally, the inaugural Staunch Prize (UK) and the Historia Award for Historical Crime Fiction (France). He lives with his family on Victorias far west coast.