Siddon Rock

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

When Macha Connor came home from the war she walked into town as naked as the day she was born, except for well-worn and shining boots, a dusty slouch hat, and the .303 rifle she held across her waist. Macha patrols Siddon Rock by night, watching over the town s inhabitants: Brigid, Granna, and all of the Aberline clan; Alistair in Meakin's Haberdashery, with his fine sense of style; Sybil, scrubbing away at the bloodstains in her father's butcher shop; Reverend Siggy, afraid of the outback landscape and the district s magical saltpans; silent Nell with her wild dogs; publican Marg, always accompanied by a cloud of blue; and the new barman, Kelpie Crush. It is only when refugee Catalin Morgenstern and her young son Josis arrive in town that Macha realises there is nothing she can do to keep the townspeople safe.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

From Victorian England to post-WWII Australia, this story of a family and community presents in detail the landscape and inhabitants of a small Australian town. The main protagonists are women whose entrance into the communal consciousness causes eddies of disturbance in the status quo. Important to the tale as they are, Macha, four generations removed from the town's sort-of founder (read and find out), and Catalin one a returnee from WWII, the other a refugee from Berlin are but two of a carefully developed cast of characters. Described with lyricism and texture, the land they live on is another potent character, an impartial force that supports and imposes boundaries on the inhabitants. The structure is complex and presents the past as embedded in and exposing the present. Suspense in the narrative leads to a tragedy and a harsh but believable resolution. Elements of magic realism, ironic humor, and impressive character development also distinguish this 2010 winner of the Commonwealth Prize for best first novel, which should impress fans of authors as diverse as Isabel Allende, Haruki Murakami, and Zadie Smith.--Loughran, Ellen Copyright 2010 Booklist