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Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon The Making of Martin Sparrow single work   novel   historical fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 The Making of Martin Sparrow
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Martin Sparrow is already struggling when the Hawkesbury’s great flood of March 1806 lays waste to him and his farm.

'Luckless, lovelorn and deep in debt, the ex-convict is confronted with a choice. He can buckle down and set about his agricultural recovery, or he can heed the whispers of an earthly paradise on the far side of the mountains – a place where men are truly free – and strike out for a new life. But what chance of renewal is there for a man like Sparrow in either the brutal colony or the forbidding wilderness?

'The decision he makes triggers a harrowing chain of events and draws in a cast of extraordinary characters, including Alister Mackie, the chief constable on the river; his deputy, Thaddeus Cuff; the vicious hunter, Griffin Pinney; the Romany girl, Bea Faa; and the young Aboriginal men, Caleb and Moowut’tin, caught between war and peace.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Notes

  • Epigraph: Colonies are built on dreams, but some dreams threaten ruin.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Viking , 2018 .
      image of person or book cover 8509075057370027834.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 512p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 30 April 2018.

      ISBN: 9780670074068, 9781742537856

Works about this Work

Switching to Fiction Peter Cochrane , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , July 2020;

'Since the publication of my novel The Making of Martin Sparrow in 2018 I have often been asked the question ‘What made you turn to fiction?’ This has turned out, usually, to be a question with a sub-text: ‘What made you, a long-time historian, cross over to the other side?’ But whatever form the question takes, my answer is always the same: ‘That’s easy,’ I say, ‘you get to make things up.’' (Introduction)

Ripples David Whish-Wilson , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 406 2018; (p. 53)

'Just one thing can shape your whole life’ is one line in a novel of four hundred and fifty pages, but it is telling in its application toward the characters of this brilliant début novel. Set on the Hawkesbury River in 1806, the cast of characters is large and yet we find each of them living with the consequences of an earlier choice or misdemeanour that ripples beyond the singular life and into the nascent river community.' (Introduction)

Ripples David Whish-Wilson , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 406 2018; (p. 53)

'Just one thing can shape your whole life’ is one line in a novel of four hundred and fifty pages, but it is telling in its application toward the characters of this brilliant début novel. Set on the Hawkesbury River in 1806, the cast of characters is large and yet we find each of them living with the consequences of an earlier choice or misdemeanour that ripples beyond the singular life and into the nascent river community.' (Introduction)

Switching to Fiction Peter Cochrane , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , July 2020;

'Since the publication of my novel The Making of Martin Sparrow in 2018 I have often been asked the question ‘What made you turn to fiction?’ This has turned out, usually, to be a question with a sub-text: ‘What made you, a long-time historian, cross over to the other side?’ But whatever form the question takes, my answer is always the same: ‘That’s easy,’ I say, ‘you get to make things up.’' (Introduction)

Awards

Last amended 19 Nov 2019 09:37:24
Settings:
  • Hawkesbury area, Northwest Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 1806
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