Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
After never having taken part in a blog tour before I now
find myself taking part in two in a month!
This book however is very different to Whitstable Hightide Swimming Club in every aspect
but I loved Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar just as much.
Salt Creek is a more or less uninhabited tract of land outside
of Adelaide in South Australia and the Finch family have been forced to
relocate their after some bad decisions made by Hester Finch’s father.
Hester is our narrator and the book slips in time from the
family’s exile in Salt Creek to her later life back in Chichester,
England. At first the move to Salt Creek
seems like the end of the world – the area is not easy to work or love but
slowly the family adjust until slowly their world unravels again.
Set against their struggles are stories of Aborigines and
their poor treatment by Australian settlers, the tales of the first settlers
and the way that the isolation, heat and cold slowly drive people mad.
The story seemed slow at first and I wasn’t too keen on the
time jumps however before I realised it the book had totally wormed its way
into my life and I was turning the pages like it was the latest thriller.
For me the addictiveness of this book for me came through the way Treloar made me think that I was one of the Finch family, I wasn't just reading about them - I was in their house, sitting at their table, sharing their triumphs and their pains. On putting the book down it did take me tome to remember that it was 2017 and I was in Norfolk not 1860s Australia.
Reading about the treatment of the indigenous people, and the troubles Tully faced after being adopted in the family didn't make easy reading but then it certainly shouldn't have done - this is a shameful piece of history that carried on for far too long. The point was driven home effectively by the characters being unable to see the irony of being abolitionists at the same time.
This book deserves to do well, I felt it covered new ideas in a very compelling manner. It is long and it is slow but these things are important, and like the landscape of Salt Creek, it grows on you.
Many thanks to the team at Gallic Press for the chance to read this book and take part in the blog tour.
Th
Ma
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