The Wing of the Night
by Brenda Walker

In 1915 a troopship of Light Horsemen sails from Fremantle for the Great War. Two women farewell their men: Elizabeth, with her background of careless wealth, and Bonnie, who is marked by the anxieties of poverty. Neither can predict how the effects of the most brutal fighting at Gallipoli will devastate their lives in the long aftermath of the war.

The Wing of Night is a novel about the strength and failure of faith and memory, about returned soldiers who become exiles in their own country, about how people may become the very opposite of what they imagined themselves to be. Brenda Walker writes with a terrible grandeur of the grime and drudge of the battlefield, and of how neither men nor women can be consoled for the wreckage caused by a foreign war.

I found this to be a beautifully written, evocative novel. Although I read it as I'd set myself a challenge to read all the Miles Franklin short-list, I was particularly drawn to this novel as my grandfather fought at Gallipoli. The twists in relationships and the damage that war can inflict on those left behind and those who return is well told. Not the ending that I expected, but true to the story. Not everything ends up happyily ever after. I'd recommend this to others.

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.

The Secret River
by Kate Grenville

After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced in 1806 to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. But among the convicts there is a whisper that freedom can be bought, an opportunity to start afresh.

Away from the infant township of Sydney, up the Hawkesbury River, Thornhill encounters men who have tried to do just that: Blackwood, who is attempting to reconcile himself with the place and its people, and Smasher Williams, whose fear of this alien world turns into brutal depravity towards it. As Thornhill and his family stake their claim on a patch of ground by the river, the battle lines between old and new inhabitants are drawn.

I ejoyed this book. I had heard both good and bad about it. After it was short-listed for the Booker Prize, I decided to read it and make up my own mind. It is a simple, yet engaging, novel about a man who falls in live with an alien land and the ramifications of his decisions on his family. Well worth reading, especially if you are interested in novels of our early history or just a good read.

Watch the ABC's First Tuesday Book Club review this novel.