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Summary
Summary
With shades of Water for Elephants and True Grit, a stunning debut novel set in the Australian outback about a female horse thief, her bid for freedom, and the two men trying to capture her. It is 1921. In a mountain-locked valley, Jessie is on the run. Born wild and brave, by twenty-six she has already lived life as a circus rider, horse and cattle rustler, and convict. But on this fateful night she is just a woman wanting to survive though there is barely any life left in her. Two men crash through the bushland, desperate to claim the reward on her head: one her lover, the other the law. But as it has always been for Jessie, it is death, not a man, who is her closest pursuer and companion. And while all odds are stacked against her, there is one who will never give up on her-- her own child, who awaits her.
Author Notes
Courtney Collins was awarded a 2015 Sydney Myer Creative Fellowship worth $160,000 over two years. Collins is the author of The Burial (A&U), which was shortlisted for the Vogel award in 2009 and following publication was shortlisted for a number of awards, including the NSW Premier¿s Award for Fiction and the Stella Prize.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Broadly based on the life of Australian "wild woman" Jessie Hickman, Collins's debut novel ranges widely over the Australian frontier-and into one woman's dark and damaged heart. It's 1921, and Jessie's past may finally be catching up with her: having just given birth to a premature baby and killed her abusive husband, the young horse rustler, former circus performer, and ex-convict is impelled toward distant mountains, where she hopes to find safety, and possibly her lover. That lover, a black man named Jack Brown, has, however, developed an uneasy partnership with a police sergeant who may have his own history with Jessie. The harshness of the human and natural environment, as well as the prevalence of death in the bleak outback setting, is underscored by the narrator; Jessie's story is told by her dead child, speaking from her grave. "The earth buckles with the stories it holds of all those who have cried and all those who have croaked," remarks the narrator, and, indeed, Collins's poetic language and salty dialogue tell the story of a woman whose life is inextricable from the bleak landscape she not only traverses but also inhabits. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
This moving debut novel was inspired by the life of Australian Elizabeth Jessie Hickman, a runaway convict born in 1820. In Collins' poetically reimagined tribute, 22-year-old Jessie is on the run after killing her brutal husband. She has recently given birth to a stillborn child whose spirit is somehow tethered to her mother and who narrates the story. Jessie has already lived a dramatic life; she once worked as a circus acrobat and then as a horse rustler but is now desperate to escape the posse of men who want to hang her for murder. While she runs, she thinks of her short, sweet relationship with the Aboriginal stockman Jack Brown, whose gentle ways were a welcome relief from the beatings administered by her drunken husband. She finds an idyllic camp in the mountains made up of desperate boys who steal horses and thinks she might finally have found a refuge, but the lawmen are not far behind. This intense read, with dark undertones of death and foreboding, contains breathtaking descriptions of the Australian bush and a lyrical homage to Jessie's desperate quest for freedom.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2014 Booklist
Kirkus Review
The dead have tales to tell, if only we could hear them. Debut novelist Collins bases her story on the legendary Australian outlaw Jessie Hickman. Born to a coldhearted mother and a loving father who died too soon, Jessie finds herself sold to a traveling circus at age 12. After her closest friend and fellow tightrope walker takes a terrible fall, she leaves the circus for a career in horse rustling, which lands her in prison; eventually, she's given a choice between languishing in jail or breaking horses for Fitz Henry. Of course, in 1917, a female convict is at the mercy of her employer, who is also her legal guardian, and Fitz quickly blackmails her into a brutal marriage. Pregnancy gives Jessie the courage to violently defy her husband, but the battle costs her the baby, as well. On the lam, she's pursued by men seeking rewards and legal retribution. Two of her pursuersJack Brown, Fitz's former drover, and Barlow, the new police officer who's already fighting some demons of his ownappear like Furies, seeking vindication, vengeance and something more. Curiously, the novel is narrated by Jessie's dead child. This choice certainly emphasizes the land, which becomes a character in its own right, binding its inhabitants together in shared tribulations, challenging Jessie, Jack and Barlow at every turn. Too often, though, the narrative premise seems forced, unnecessarily drawing attention to the fantastic ability of the undead to know a past it never lived. Prefacing the tale with a brief account of one of Harry Houdini's escapes also seems strained; Jessie's horse may be named for the magician, but the allusion rather heavy-handedly foreshadows Jessie's fate.Collins richly evokes a heartbreaking emotional terrain, setting it against the sparse, brutal landscape of the Australian Outback. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
First-time novelist Collins's book is set in the Australian outback in the 1920s. Jesse Hicks is on the run after killing her abusive ranch owner husband, a man she was virtually sold to after she got out of prison. She was pregnant but suffers a miscarriage as the story begins. From then on the story is told by her dead child. At first Jesse is pursued by her husband's former employee and a sheriff. But after she joins up with a group of boys who have been making their living rustling cattle, a few irate ranchers are also on her trail. Collins has based her story on a legendary Australian character and uses what little is known about Jesse to build the tale. The somewhat unorthodox first-person narrative by her dead child is very effective. Collins does a skillful job of narrating her own work; her Australian accent is perfect. VERDICT Recommended for Western and historical fiction fans. ["A fast-paced, heart-wrenching story that never loses speed, this extraordinary first novel is not to be missed," read the starred review of the Amy Einhorn: Putnam hc, LJ 4/1/14.]-Mary Knapp, Madison P.L., WI (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.