A Room Made of Leaves
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By Kate Grenville
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FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AND WOMEN’S PRIZE-WINNING AUSTRALIAN NOVELIST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION
It is 1788. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth is hungry for life but, as the ward of a Devon clergyman, knows she has few prospects. When proud, scarred soldier John Macarthur promises her the earth one midsummer’s night, she believes him.
But Elizabeth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Her new husband is reckless, tormented, driven by some dark rage at the world. He tells her he is to take up a position as Lieutenant in a New South Wales penal colony and she has no choice but to go. Sailing for six months to the far side of the globe with a child growing inside her, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours.
All her life she has learned to be obliging, to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined, and passions she could never express.
Inspired by the real life of a remarkable woman, this is an extraordinarily rich, beautifully wrought novel of resilience, courage and the mystery of human desire.
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This is a pretty gripping story of a young woman, Elizabeth Macarthur, who in 1788 at the age of 19 marries a hot-tempered, pugnacious, proud and haughty young soldier, and then soon after, sets out with him for a life in the newly-established penal colony of Sydney Cove in New South Wales.
Kate Grenville has written the book as a journal in which Elizabeth describes in detail her life there. It's worth noting that Elizabeth Macarthur and her husband, John, are real-life people. John rose to become a very influential man in early Australia, and is often called the father of Australia’s wool industry.
History, be it Australian or otherwise, is mostly about men. Most women of the past, unless they are queens, highborn ladies or high-flying scientists, have sunk into obscurity. So, while John’s life is richly documented, much less is known about Elizabeth.
Kate Grenville, a well-known Australian author, has remedied this lack by writing a deeply personal, entertaining and fictionalised account of the young Elizabeth’s early life. In it we get a sense of what it must have been like for a gently brought up woman to be dumped in such a violent and brutal place, and the difficulties Elizabeth must have had to discreetly steer her frankly dreadful husband through their life.
Through her eyes we see the whole colony, but especially we see John, a man always on the look-out for an insult, who takes offence at everything, but who nonetheless rises to high positions and makes a fortune through sheer force of will. We also see the native aboriginal people, glimpse their resilience, their life-skills and their occasional kindness to the young Elizabeth. And we see how she, a product of her time and upbringing, cannot engage with them even though she observes their increasing plight.
I really liked this book. The writing is light and easy. The story is quite linear, but it’s well written so it’s not long before the narrative grips you. Elizabeth and John both come to startling life in the pages, as do all the people around them – officers, felon/servants, the other wives and the natives. But most of all the landscape opens before your eyes. It’s so vividly written that you can almost smell the place.
This isn’t crime fiction and I’m amazed that the library classifies it as such. In my view it’s literary fiction, with truth at its core. The book is dedicated to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as the first people of the land where this story takes place. I recommend it, and it earns 4-Stars from me.
Review by: Freyja
