Cirrus@Austlit

'A timely, haunting drama of utopian dreams confronted with baleful reality, Hall's new novel captures the bizarre appeal of religious cults. Catherine Byrne marries self-proclaimed prophet Muley Moloch and leaves 19th-century England with him and his eight female disciples to search for paradise on earth in the wilds of Australia. But life as a prophet's wife is not all that Catherine had expected; her first-person narration recounts a shipwreck, illness, death and outbursts of jealousy among the disciples. Muley's visionary charisma leads the group ever farther from civilization but does not draw them together, nor do the shared hardships of settling the wilderness, building two houses (one for Muley, one for the nine women, called the Household of Hidden Stars) and coping with apparitions that stare at them from the edges of the forests. After Muley disappears on a mysterious voyage, Catherine begins to see the apparitions more clearly; she alternates between enchantment and fear, wondering what is real and what is imagined. When the police arrive to investigate a brutal murder, Catherine vents her anger and frustration in a high-pitched, almost inchoate account of deception, betrayal, holy and unholy mysteries (including purported virgin births), and, finally, redemption.'

Source: Publishers Weekly https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-374-16704-2

'A young 19th-century English printer forges a document attributed to 15th-century William Caxton. Known only as FJ--the initials embedded in his forgery--the young printer is arrested and sent in fetters to New South Wales, shackled to an abusive fellow prisoner, Gabriel Dean. En route, Gabriel Dean subjects the young Englishman to unceasing abuse until FJ finally murders his tormentor. On arrival in New South Wales, FJ escapes from his master, Atholl, and disappears into the cover of surrounding jungle. Taken under the protective care of a group of aborigines, FJ recovers his health and witnesses the murder of Atholl. Further improbabilities result in the reappearance of Gabriel Dean--not dead after all--who drags FJ back to Atholl's camp, and FJ's final escape from the authorities. An old-fashioned adventure tale, in short, decked out in lyrical prose and brought up to date with a sensitive view of aboriginal culture.'

Source: Kirkus Reviews 1991

'A worthy successor to the prize-winning Just Relations, Hall's second novel to appear in this country is shorter and tighter, with the same mythical, almost mystical quality of an Australian legend, here distilled to the rambling memories of apparently senile Patrick Murphy. Patrick is outraged by the deathbed confession, in 1956, of Barney Barnett, a contemporary who was once betrothed to Patrick's sister Ellen. Barney says that 58 years ago he committed the brutal murders of three of Patrick's siblings: Norah, 27, Ellen, 18, and Michael, 29. (Hall uses an actual, unsolved murder case of 1898 and the real victims' names; no culprit was ever found.) Barnett's confession, a final try for some kind of fame or glory, is exposed as a hoax; he makes a grave error of fact and the Sydney police inspector grunts in disgust. Patrick's inner monologue does not at first reveal what he knows about the murders, although it's plain he knows a lot. As he ranges through his memories, describing childhood events from 70 years before, we are caught up in an extraordinary family of 10 children who lived with their tall, silent parents on a farm called Paradise, far away in the Australian farmlands...'

Source: Publishers Weekly https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-374-11889-1