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Amazon.co.uk Review
Now jump back 30 years, to 1828, when a revolution of sorts is stirring on the island of Tasmania. Over the years white settlers have been encroaching on aboriginal land and relations have deteriorated into violence. At the heart of the action is Peevay, a young half-breed abandoned by his aborigine mother, who had been kidnapped and raped by a white escaped convict. Now his vengeful mother is leading a war against the whites, and Peevay, desperate to win her love, has joined her. Chapters from the past narrated by Peevay and augmented by letters and dispatches from white settlers alternate with the sections told by Kewley, Wilson, Renshaw and Potter. Eventually, of course, the two timelines intersect with momentous results.
War, mutiny, shipwreck and not a little farce make English Passengers a gripping read, but it is Matthew Kneale's literary ventriloquism that renders it remarkable. In a novel with so many different points of view, the individuality of each voice stands out. There is, for instance, the mutinous Dr Potter, whose descent into paranoia and egomania results in diary entries reminiscent of a 19th-century psychotic Bridget Jones: "Manxmen = treacherous even to v. last. Self heard Brew (lashed to mainmast as per usual) instructing helmsman to steer N.N.W. when self questioned he re. this he claiming we = carried into Bay of Biscay by difficult sea currents + must set course to avoid Breton Peninsular. He pointing to distant point of land to N.N.E. claiming this = Brittany. Self = doubtful".
Perhaps the most compelling voice in English Passengers belongs to Peevay, who paints a vivid picture of aboriginal life in a foreign tongue he nonetheless makes his own:
When we sat so in the dark, after our eating, Tartoyen told us stories--secret stories that I will not say even now--about the moon and sun, and how everyone got made, from men and wallaby to seal and kangaroo rat and so. Also he told who was in those rocks and mountains and stars, and how they went there. Until, by and by, I could hear stories as we walked across the world, and divine how it got so, till I knew the world as if he was some family fellow of mine.By the close of this epic tale, the world Peevay knew has gone forever, and the lives of the Manx sailors and English passengers have been irrevocably changed. Based on real events in Tasmanian history, Matthew Kneale's novel delivers a home truth about Australia's brutal colonial past, even as it conveys the wonder and allure of the age of exploration. --Alix Wilber
Review
Say a man catches a bullet through his skull in somebody's war, so where's the beginning of that? You might say that's easy. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
This is a beautifully observed book that races along at cracking pace. Its highly entertaining and thought-provoking. Safe to say, everyone gets their just desserts. I highly recommend it.
The book really brings home the sheer arrogance of the settlers of that time, and you cannot help but feel a sense of profound pity at the extinction of a unique people. This, of course is not the first book that has done this, but Kneale's brilliant narrative style serves to really underline the different motives behind the settlers. Some cannot see any point in even giving the 'savages' a life, and others held a wish to preserve the culture (even if it was primarily with a concern for the image of Britain).This serious aspect is intertwined with a brilliant story of adventure that ends with a thriller-like sequence of events. The different threads of the brilliant (and in some cases repulsive) characters all tie together in a very satisfying manner. The true meaning of a page turner.
The novel is essentially two parallel stories. One is of several English passengers aboard a Manx smuggling ship, bound for Tasmania, in search of the Biblical Garden of Eden. The other is of a Tasmanian Aborigine named Peevay, who has been born as the result of his mother's rape by a white man. These characters eventually cross paths (leading to a truly gripping finale), but along the way we learn a lot more about all of them, as well as about the history of Tasmania.
This novel is really quite brilliant. Kneale employs the tactic of having many different narrators tell the story, each from their own viewpoint. Every voice he uses - white, black, male, female, English, Tasmanian - is utterly convincing, and despite all these different storytellers, the novel doesn't become confusing or disordered, as you might expect - it is compelling stuff throughout. And it's not simply entertainment - this tale will get you thinking. It's been a long time since I have seriously thought about a book when not reading it; I found my thoughts kept going back to this novel and its characters - what would happen next, how it would end, not to mention the issues it raises.
On one of those Tube journeys I try to while away with fiction, a totally random guy started telling me, and his girlfriend who was sitting next to him, what a great book it was I was reading, and how it was one of his favourites. "English Passengers" is now one of my favourite novels, too. It's not only the best book I have read in quite some time, but probably one of the best I have ever read. This is not the kind of novel which has a good style but a boring plot, or which has some great writing but a few sections that are boring and difficult to get through - it has a great, brilliantly original storyline, and convincing and intriguing characters, and is superb throughout. There are some great touches of humour as well as some genuinely moving moments.
I really cannot recommend this novel highly enough - it is, quite simply, outstanding.
One of those books where you hate to get to the end. Read more
I very rarely re-read books, but this is definitely one I will read again. Read more
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