Amazon.co.uk: Alice Springs: Nikki Gemmell: Books

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Synopsis
A legacy from her grandmother sends Phillipa "Snip" Freeman on a personal odyssey through the Australian Outback in search of her long-lost father, and answers to her unexplained questions about her troubled childhood.

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4 Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Moving and poignant literary work, 29 Jul 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice Springs (Hardcover)

Phillipa "Snip" Freeman never stays in one place for very long. Relationships are short term and must totally be on Snip's terms. The only things accompanying Snip on her wanderlust throughout Australia is a sleeping bag and her one compassion, her art.

Everything suddenly changes when Snip's grandmother dies, leaving a weird inheritance for the endless traveler. Snip received an envelope containing a $30,000 check and a note: "Hunt him down". Snip heeds her grandmother's advice and begins a search in the Outback for her estranged father. On the trip inland, she meets a geologist who accompanies her. The pair begins to fall in love, but Snip uses a minor incident to leave him behind. When she finally finds her father, she asks him what destroyed their family?

ALICE SPRINGS is an intriguing introspective search for one's identity. Snip is one of the best characters of the year as her independence and vulnerability constantly battle for supremacy. However, the two male leads seem to only exist as extensions of Snip rather than fully developed characters. The Australian landscape beautifully adds to the harshness of the quest. Nikki Gemmell provides readers with a profound tale of finding one's inner essence. The soul searching adventure will garner much attention from fans who enjoy a story line that centers on the conflicting psyche that make up a human being.

Harriet Klausner

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

I couldn't put it down, 16 Aug 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Alice Springs (Hardcover)

This is a passionate, driven novel whose main character, the flinty but vulnerable Snip Freeman, has stayed with me long after I finished the book. Gemmell's voice is vivid and poetic, unlike any other I have read. I couldn't put the novel down. It was facinating to read about a place so foreign as the Australian desert, and the central sequence where the protagonists are stranded and running out of time is wonderfully handled. I can imagine this book having a huge fan base, particularly among the sort of readers who loved "The Beach." Powerful stuff.

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