"Limberlost" Robbie Arnott

At last! Let's go visit Tasmania again and get stuck into Limberlost.

"In the heat of a long summer Ned hunts rabbits in a river valley, hoping the pelts will earn him enough money to buy a small boat.

His two brothers are away at war, their whereabouts unknown. His father and older sister struggle to hold things together on the family orchard, Limberlost.

Desperate to ignore it all—to avoid the future rushing towards him—Ned dreams of open water.

As his story unfolds over the following decades, we see how Ned’s choices that summer come to shape the course of his life, the fate of his family and the future of the valley, with its seasons of death and rebirth.

The third novel by the award-winning author of Flames and The Rain Heron, Limberlost is an extraordinary chronicle of life and land: of carnage and kindness, blood ties and love."

Notes for future book club: Hannah Kent's Burial Rites and Devotion look really good. Also, The latest Fremantle Press newsletter also recommends Benang from the Heart by Kim Scott (republished and relaunched in Freo recently, a melancholy read), Confessions of an Anxious Dad by Laurie Steed (endearing comedy), and The Skeleton House by Katherine Allum (religious drama).