Rifling Paradise - Softcover

Jem Poster

Softcover

ISBN 10: 034092165X ISBN 13: 9780340921654

Publisher: Sceptre, 2006

Synopsis

A gripping thriller set in the wilds of nineteenth-century Australia by the critically acclaimed author of Courting Shadows.

When past indiscretions catch up with Charles Redbourne, a minor English landowner, he is propelled from England to Australia, where he plans to make his mark as a naturalist. There, his life begins to change dramatically, not least when he meets his host's wayward, artistic daughter. But it is on an expedition in search of scientific specimens in the Blue Mountains that events take a terrifying turn. Vividly conveying the unspoken codes of Victorian society, this is a gripping tale of emotional and psychological reckoning that offers an inspired meditation on the relationship between humankind and the natural world.

About this title

About the Author

Jem Poster is the author of a poetry collection, Brought to Light (Bloodaxe, 2001), and two novels, COURTING SHADOWS, published by Sceptre in 2002, and RIFLING PARADISE, to be published by Sceptre in 2006. He holds the Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. In 2003 Rifling Paradise won an Arts Council Writers' Award for a work in progress.

Review

"Poster (Courting Shadows, 2008) starts this story in Victorian England, but it is his vivid portrayal of the outback and the psychological tension of Redbourne+s exploits there that are most memorable. A skillfully wrought, disquieting novel."-Booklist "It sounds like hyperbole but I don+t care: Jem Poster+s sophomore effort, Rifling Paradise (Overlook) is as near perfect a book as I have encountered in a very long time. It is a work of historical fiction and the history here -- Australia in the Victorian era -- is pitch perfect. Rifling Paradise looks like a book, but it is not: it+s really a time machine. The story finds minor English landowner, Charles Redbourne, heading to Australia to make an impression as a naturalist, at a time when that was a weirdly competitive field. If Rifling Paradise was just Redbourne+s story, it would be interesting enough: it would be a good book. But when Redbourne+s specimen collecting takes a terrifying turn, we find ourselves with a page turner on our hands. So what is Rifling Paradise? Is it historical fiction? Literary fiction? Is it a psychological thriller? Or the portrait of an age? Well, actually, it+s all of those things. And more. A wonderful book." -January magazine

- "Creepy and confronting . . . captures the atmosphere of the bush, the beauty of our birds, and the harshness of colonial life."-Independent Weekly

"Immediately gripping . . . an epic tale whose figures in a landscape encapsulate a turning point in history."-Times Literary Supplement

"A narrative so vivid that you can almost smell the eucalyptus . . . full of intrigue, emotion and individual realization."-Morning Star

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 034092165X
• ISBN 13: 9780340921654
• Binding: Paperback