"Tied to its Tasmanian setting, this elementally beautiful novel takes readers on a reflective voyage through the life, losses and longings of a man of few words."
As beautiful and unique as his previous novel Flames, Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost casts a haunting spell as it tells the coming-of-age tale of a Tasmanian teenager through to marriage, fatherhood, and old age. Bathed in the raw natural beauty of its setting, this tender tale of loss, love, longing and cycles of life seeps from the page into your soul.
From the opening pages, Arnott’s unique way with words (sensual, elemental, perfectly balanced) compels readers to slow down and reflect, with its protagonist being a quiet, laconic type. We first meet Ned as a boy who longs to own his own river boat. A boat that will give him some freedom from Limberlost, his family’s orchard farm. A farm that‘s haunted by the loss of Ned’s mother, and by the absence of his brothers, who are fighting in Singapore.
After trapping rabbits and selling their pelts, Ned realises his dream and buys a boat. When he strips away the old paint, he’s struck by the beauty of the wood: “In it, Ned saw gold, saw nature, saw heaven.” It made “a huge, red-sparking emotion flow through him.” This sensation exquisitely captures Ned’s character, and the author’s ability to conjure the burning essence of emotions.
As time passes and his brothers don’t return, Ned’s sister Maggie does come home, and his childhood friends remain constant, too – Jackbird, and his tough, smart sister Callie, who Ned marries and has children with. But turmoil comes in the wake of a brutal storm, forcing Ned to make a brutal decision.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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| Recommendations: |
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Ned West dreams of sailing across the river on a boat of his very own. To Ned, a boat means freedom the fresh open water, squid-rich reefs, fires on private beaches - a far cry from life on Limberlost, the family farm, where his father worries and grieves for Ned's older brothers.
They're away fighting in a ruthless and distant war, becoming men on the battlefield, while Ned, too young to enlist roams the land in search of rabbits to shoot, selling their pelts to fund his secret boat ambitions.
But as the seasons pass and Ned grows up, real life gets in the way. Ned falls for Callie, the tough, capable sister of his best friend, and together they learn the lessons of love, loss, and hardship.
When a storm decimates the Limberlost crop and shakes the orchard's future, Ned must decide what to protect: his childhood dreams, or the people and the land that surround him.
At turns tender and vicious, Limberlost is a tale of the masculinities we inherit, the limits of ownership and understanding, and the teeming, vibrant wonders of growing up. Told in spellbinding, folkloric spirit, this is an unforgettable love letter to the richness of the natural world from a writer of rare talent.
Limberlost features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: Sense of place, General Fiction, Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes, Star Books, Recommendations, Audiobooks of the Month
Limberlost is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook (Epub), Audiobook
Limberlost was written by Robbie Arnott and published by W. F. Howes Ltd
