The award-winning author of modern classics such as Schindler's List
and Napoleon's Last Island is at his triumphant best with this
"engrossing and transporting" (Financial Times) novel about the
adventures of Charles Dickens's son in the Australian Outback during the
1860s.
Edward Dickens, the tenth child of England's most famous author Charles
Dickens, has consistently let his parents down. Unable to apply himself
at school and adrift in life, the teenaged boy is sent to Australia in
the hopes that he can make something of himself--or at least fail out of
the public eye.
He soon finds himself in the remote Outback, surrounded by Aboriginals,
colonials, ex-convicts, ex-soldiers, and very few women. Determined to
prove to his parents and more importantly, himself, that he can succeed
in this vast and unfamiliar wilderness, Edward works hard at his new
life amidst various livestock, bushrangers, shifty stock agents, and
frontier battles.
By reimagining the tale of a fascinating yet little-known figure in
history, this "roguishly tender coming-of-age story" (Booklist) offers
penetrating insights into Colonialism and the fate of Australia's
indigenous people, and a wonderfully intimate portrait of Charles
Dickens, as seen through the eyes of his son.
