GENRE: HISTORICAL FICTION

My friend, Margie, gave me this fabulous book when I was leaving Ivanhoe. It is the story of Kate, a grazier somewhere in the New England, after World War II.

The poor bitch has to deal with every bloody prejudice you can imagine: Her husband wants a divorce so he can marry another sheila and he is blackmailing her for money by accusing her of adultery with an Italian POW. Her father, just before he died, had raped an Aboriginal girl, and so now poor bloody Kate has an Aboriginal half-sister and a responsibility towards the chick her father impregnated. Trouble is that she loves them both.

She is trying to stop the Welfare Board taking the child away because such kids should not be with their mothers. They should be raised by white families. She is white, but not a family while the stigma of impending divorce hangs in the air.

 There’s also a kid who lives with her because he is an orphan, but the kid’s grandmother in Sydney is upset that Kate is about to be divorced and wants him to go and live with his cruel great-uncle who is secretly rustling Kate’s sheep. The next-door neighbour employs the great-unc. as his overseer and he is a misogynistic mongrel who gambles his money away but refuses to pay Kate the money he owes her for some sheep she has sold him. He tells her he is witholding her cheque because she insists on backburning and he is sure her fires are going to get away.

The bank manager will not approve a loan to pay out the husband who is blackmailing her, simply because she is a woman, and the rural fire control officer hits on her. The mailman spreads gossip and then her Italian POW friend returns to the district and she realises she does love him and they have it off. Secretly of course …

And then there is a fire … Thank you, Margie. Great gift. I couldn’t put it down.