Bereft [Paperback]

World War I has ended and Quinn Walker returns to the small Australian town he ran away from so many years ago. He ran from a nightmare. Accused of murder and rape, of his own sister. Returning home to a town that wishes him dead, he hides in the hills and befriends an orphan girl.

Womersley's prose paints the perfect picture of the world inside these pages. It is fairly concise, not one of those overly descriptive tomes but the words seem to be spot on, from the light falling in his mother's room to the smells of the Australian bush.

The relationship between a grown man and a pre-pubescent girl, whilst touch at time, does give the novel a sense of unease. That the idea of child abuse is placed in your mind in the first few pages and there are constant reminders of the accusations against Quinn, makes it hard not to doubt him. The character of Sadie is quirky, strong and yet vulnerable underneath, yet I found myself unable to connect to Quinn. For the horrors he has seen both at home and in war, I would expect more raw emotion but Bereft is an oddly quiet account.

Bereft was awarded ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and Indie Award for Best Fiction Novel in 2011 and has been shortlisted for numerous other Australian prizes.

Many historical fiction titles tend to take the reader back quite a way time wise so that you're clear of anything within living memory (although this setting is close to being outside that remit) so when this title from Chris arrived I really was looking forward to it to read a story set with a character suffering the aftermath of the effects of time within the trenches of the first world war. What Chris' writing does is take the reader to a setting that is almost cinematic with a principle character that you can not only imagine but see as if they were flesh and blood.

Add to this a wonderful story which whilst quite short, fulfils the key points for me as a reader with a solid character, well thought out description and an overall arc that presents a tale that keeps you interested from start to finish. All in this is a wonderful read and whilst I think it may be missed by a lot of others it's well worth your time to search it out. Great stuff.

Quinn Walker returns to the small town of Flint, in New South Wales, Australia, in 1919, after fighting in World War I. He had left his hometown ten years earlier under a dark cloud, running away from his home and family after being accused of a terrible crime. Now returned, he bears the physical and mental scars of his years in the war, and hides out in the hills surrounding Flint, looking out over the town, pondering his life as it is now, and why he has returned to this place. He meets a young girl in the hills, Sadie Fox, who seems to have a deep knowledge and understanding of what it is that Quinn fears. Gradually a connection grows between the pair, and Quinn is moved to action.

After reading only a few pages of Bereft, I was impressed with the author's beautiful use of language. It is an atmospheric story, and in many ways a dark read. The years spent fighting in the war have made their permanent mark on Quinn, and as he lurks in the hills over Flint, he is overtaken by memories and visions of the trenches, imagining that a fellow soldier has appeared alongside him, then moments later, realising he is alone, that it was just his mind playing tricks.

'It was odd to be alone. During the war he grew used to the press of many bodies, to the whiff of other men and their whispering hearts of fear. They were a brotherhood of terror huddled in the trenches...He didn't fear death. He imagined there were few miseries he hadn't experienced...'

The author writes starkly and honestly about the realities facing the men, like Quinn, returning from the war, damaged, battered by their experiences, injured and exhausted; '...their unguarded selves were delicate, unwieldy creatures beneath their uniforms...No wonder so many millions of them died: men are nothing when thrown into the machine of history.' As the world is just waking up to what is left after the War, the flu epidemic strikes.

Then young Sadie appears one day in the hills, and Quinn's encounters with her have an almost magical element, as she claims to know what Quinn has been saying even when she wasn't present, so that 'he was no longer sure what to believe. It seemed equally that all things were possible and also that very little was.' Further, Sadie 'always showed up when he needed her.' They are united in their loneliness and in their need to hide away, waiting and wandering in this remote place, and an unusual but innocent companionship develops.

There are some very touching moments in the story as Quinn gently reestablishes a relationship with his mother. As he revisits the wretched place where the terrible event occurred that has shaped his life, he wishes it possible that the truth could just show itself, 'if only the darkness would speak.'

I was drawn into this story from the start, and Quinn came to life in my mind, a fully formed character, the way his experiences and feelings are described, the reader is there with him and can feel what horror he has endured in the trenches during the war, and how he bears the weight of his past, the terrible knowledge he has carried since he was that young boy who ran away. We also get a feel for the location, the rural bush town of Quinn's birth, where everyone knows everyone else's business.

This is a beautifully written historical literary novel, which is fairly short by today's standards, with an engaging, at times mysterious storyline that gets the reader thinking. At once a sorrowful yet redemptive story of tremendous grief, regret and loss, and of love, survival and belief, this is a book I would definitely recommend, and I am glad to have been introduced to this writer; this is an author whose work I would return to. 4.5/5