'Keen to escape the pressures of city life, Marsali Swift and her husband William are drawn to Listowel, a glorious historic mansion in the seemingly tranquil small town of Muckleton. There is time to read, garden, decorate, play chess and befriend the locals.
'Yet one night Listowel is robbed, and soon after a neighbor is murdered. The violent history of the couple’s adopted Goldfields town is revealed, and plans for a new goldmine emerge.
'Subtle and sinister details unnerve. The novels that are studied at book club echo disappearances and colonial transgressions, a treasured copy of Monet ‘s Field of Poppies recalls loves and dreams but also times of war.
'Atmospheric and beguiling this is a novel the seduces the reader with mysteries and beauties but also speaks of something much larger. The planet is in trouble, but is the human race up to the challenge? Are Marsali and William walking blindfold into a hostile world?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'A gentle allegory for the notion that the good life goes on – for the privileged, at least.'
'Carmel Bird has been almost impossibly productive. As well as 11 novels and nine collections of short stories, she has edited seven anthologies, written children’s books and racked up a stack of nonfiction works, including the writing-class favourite, Dear Writer. She is fleet of foot and can turn her hand to different styles with ease. It is difficult to find another Australian writer working today who has written so diversely and so constantly. Her work often has a breezy humour that disguises darker issues, and this lightness of touch is particularly refreshing right now.' (Introduction)
'When Claude Monet lived in Argenteuil in the 1870s, he famously worked in a studio-boat on the Seine. He painted the river, he painted bridges over the river, he painted snow, the sky, his children and his wife, and, famously, a field of red poppies with a large country house in the background. Argenteuil is to Paris roughly what Heidelberg and Templestowe are to Melbourne. Once a riparian haven for plein air painters interested in capturing the transient optics of natural phenomena, it is now a suburban interface with a diminishing habitat for anything but humans.'(Introduction)
'When Claude Monet lived in Argenteuil in the 1870s, he famously worked in a studio-boat on the Seine. He painted the river, he painted bridges over the river, he painted snow, the sky, his children and his wife, and, famously, a field of red poppies with a large country house in the background. Argenteuil is to Paris roughly what Heidelberg and Templestowe are to Melbourne. Once a riparian haven for plein air painters interested in capturing the transient optics of natural phenomena, it is now a suburban interface with a diminishing habitat for anything but humans.'(Introduction)
'Carmel Bird has been almost impossibly productive. As well as 11 novels and nine collections of short stories, she has edited seven anthologies, written children’s books and racked up a stack of nonfiction works, including the writing-class favourite, Dear Writer. She is fleet of foot and can turn her hand to different styles with ease. It is difficult to find another Australian writer working today who has written so diversely and so constantly. Her work often has a breezy humour that disguises darker issues, and this lightness of touch is particularly refreshing right now.' (Introduction)
'A gentle allegory for the notion that the good life goes on – for the privileged, at least.'
