The Garden Book
by Brian Castro

After the exoticism of Shanghai Dancing, Castro returns to Australia in his new novel. Set in the Dandenongs between the Depression and World War II, the book revolves around Swan Hay, the daughter of a Chinese schoolteacher, and her relationships with brutal bushman Darcy Damon, and an American aviator and adventurer. A work of literary detection, it is tribute to the beauty and cruelty of the Australian bush, and Australia's identity crisis during the period of the White Australia Policy.

It took a while to get into this book. The first section about Darcy started to drag and the language was full of prose. Very beautiful but it took a long while to get any where. But I picked the novel up again yesterday and became mesmerised, reading about Swan, until the book was finished. I enjoyed it in the end but I wouldn't re-read the book. I felt real compassion for Swan and the mess that was her life and enjoyed the research of the rare books librarian to discover Swan's story (who it turns out, is his mother). If you enjoy beautiful writing or interesting poetry, you'd probably enjoy this.