West of the Blue Gums

‘Her voice sounded wooden and came from far away. There was a dreamlike quality to the scene. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Her whole life seemed to be reduced to this one moment, telescoping into that one fraction of time and space. She took in the images, surprised she could examine them singly: the press of onlookers; Michael’s white face; a pool of dark blood congealing in the dust.’

Jess and Brad’s marriage is in trouble. They are two good people who don’t know how to cope with what life has dealt them.

It is not until Jess begrudgingly accompanies Brad on a research trip to the Dimantina and discovers old papers belonging to a woman, Jenna, who lived on the property in the 1870s that she is able to put her own life and losses into perspective.

From Ireland in 1867 to Far Western Queensland in the present day, Robyn Lee Burrows draws the past into the present with engaging and devastating effect.