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Torquil
 
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Torquil (Paperback)

by Susannah Brobyn (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
Price: £7.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 274 pages
  • Publisher: Pen Press Publishers (5 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1906206082
  • ISBN-13: 978-1906206086
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,225,567 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
In 1872, Torquil and his family emigrated from Norway following the promise of a paradise land of opportunity and abundance in New Zealand. This absorbing story, beautifully told through the eyes of a young boy deeply in touch with nature, tells of the hardship and tragedy the Scandinavian people faced in the "Seventy Mile Bush". It describes how they dealt with the harsh realities of a new culture, language and the challenge of transforming dense virgin forest into a viable farming landscape.

About the Author
Susannah Brobyn, a New Zealander living in London, has sojourned through many chapters in her life as a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Her academic career, though a struggle over 30 years with the disadvantage of dyslexia, she nevertheless achieved a BA in Education, a Post Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation and ordination as a Lay Preacher in the New Zealand Methodist Denomination. Now in retirement from her professional working life in Pastoral and related Health fields she is presently living with her London family as a nanny-granny. Susannah has taken the opportunity to renew and fulfil her childhood dream to become a published novelist with Torquil her first novel.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping historical drama of New Zealand settler life, 13 Jul 2008
By C.Campbell (London, UK) - See all my reviews
Susannah Brobyn's first novel Torquil establishes her as a bright star on the horizon of up-and-coming Antipodean authors - a writer with an exceptional ability to combine her encyclopaedic knowledge of the New Zealand's social, political and natural history with a gripping human life drama that draws the reader into the tragedies and triumphs of an early settler family who leave the hardships and struggles of life as Norwegian tenant farmers hoping for a better future in the expanding new colony of New Zealand.

Set in the late 1800s, and seen through the eyes of Torquil, a child at the start of the book, and a young man by the end, it follows the path of Torquil's family, part of a small group of Norwegian settlers, who leave their bleak and exhausting lives as tenant farmers in the unforgiving Scandinavian countryside for the promise of a bright new future in the developing colony of New Zealand. The story details the immense hardship and tragedy that they faced in converting the almost impenetrable `Seventy Mile Bush' into the viable farming community of Norsewood - at a particularly cruel and fascinating moment of New Zealand's pioneering history.

Brobyn's compelling tale details the Norwegian settlers' constant struggle for survival in the face of illness, the deaths of many children, devastating bush fires, extreme weather and the bitterness of their disappointment when - contrary to the colonial government's promises - the promised and long-awaited railway line was re-routed to bypass their settlement.

This is a moving story of tremendous solidarity and courage. Women were often left alone for many months at a time to eke out a living in conditions of extreme danger and isolation. Men were often forced to go away for long periods of time to engage in the back-breaking and often deadly work of building roads and railway lines and clearing forest, for which they were paid a pittance. Children - forced to walk many miles to distant schools in appalling conditions - found comfort in the delights and wonders of the natural world around them - Brobyn captures the richness of the country's flowers, trees, birds and insects in almost lyrical prose.

This is a wonderful novel that captures the complex mix of resilience, resourcefulness and survival in the face of colonial exploitation that lie at the heart of New Zealand's multi-layered history.
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