Reviewed By Toni Whitmont, Booktopia Buzz Editor
To read more reviews by Toni Whitmont,
click here to visit the Booktopia Newsletter Archive.
Let me start by saying very genuinely that I am proud to bring you
Favel Parrett's debut novel,
Past the Shallows. I have read this remarkable book not once, but twice. I have wept through it not once, but twice. I have laughed in places, sighed a lot and disappeared so completely into the world that she conjures up that I had to wrench myself back into real time with an ache in my heart.
Parrett brings us the story of Miles and Harry, two of three brothers whose lives are shut down when their mother dies and they are left to fend for themselves with an angry father whose life revolves around his abalone poaching in the cold waters off the Tasmanian coast and his nursing of a bitter secret which is only numbed by large quantities of booze.
As a debut novel, this really is quite remarkable. Parrett writes with elegance and simplicity. This is the kind of book that begs to be read out loud so you can savour each sparse sentence. Whether she is describing the economy of movement of Martin sorting through tubs of abalone, or Harry trying to mend Miles' blistered hands with a comforting cup of Milo, or the warmth emitting from George's dog Jake as he sleeps on Harry's feet, the reader is utterly transported to the cold, bleak township clinging to Tasmania's rocky coast.
Parrett is already being likened to Tim Winton and Craig Silvey and the comparisons are apt. But she has an assurance and authenticity uniquely her own and when it comes to Tasmania, she is certainly up there with Richard Flanagan when it comes to voicing country.
Past the Shallows is not a long read but it is completely engaging. It will leave you both broken-hearted and enormously grateful and I am delighted to be offering it to you here as my
May Booktopia Buzz book of the month.
To read Favel Parrett's answers to our Ten Terrifying Questions, go here.
To read an extract, go here.
