First published 2000
Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley runs tobacco and brandy from the Isle of Man to England's quiet beaches. The year is 1857, and his simple smuggling operation takes a disastrous turn when three Englishmen force him to sail for Australia. Reverend Geoffrey Wilson leads this unlikely expedition to Tasmania, convinced he can locate the Garden of Eden and prove the Bible against new geological theories. Wilson brings botanist Timothy Renshaw and the paranoid Dr. Thomas Potter on his quest. Meanwhile, thirty years earlier in Tasmania, Peevay fights alongside his Aboriginal mother against white settlers. This mixed race boy was abandoned after his mother's rape by an escaped convict, and now he desperately seeks her approval through warfare. The colonial violence escalates as settlers encroach on native lands. When the two timelines converge, Kewley's reluctant voyage collides with Peevay's world in Tasmania. War, mutiny, and shipwreck follow as the English passengers discover that their scientific mission cannot escape the brutal realities of colonial Australia. The encounter destroys Peevay's traditional world forever while transforming the lives of the Manx sailors and English travelers.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, reluctant-hero
Setting: Isle of Man, England, Australia, Tasmania
Period: 1857, 19th-century
543 pages · Hardcover · Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt DVA
Content warnings: colonialism, violence