Preservation

Description

1797. On a beach not far from the isolated settlement of Sydney, a fishing boat picks up three shipwreck survivors, distressed and terribly injured. They have walked hundreds of miles across a landscape whose features-and inhabitants-they have no way of comprehending. They have lost fourteen companions along the way. Their accounts of the ordeal are evasive. It is Lieutenant Joshua Grayling's task to investigate the story. Gradually he comes to realise that those fourteen deaths were contrived by one calculating mind. And as the full horror of the men's journey emerges, he begins to wonder whether the ruthless killer now at large in the infant colony poses a danger to his own family.

Jock Serong is the author of Quota, winner of the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and of The Rules of Backyard Cricket, shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction, finalist of the 2017 MWA Edgar Awards for Best Paperback Original, and finalist of the 2017 INDIES Adult Mystery Book of the Year; and On the Java Ridge, shortlisted for the 2018 Indie Awards.

'A riveting and brutal tale.' * Good Reading * 'A great work of fiction to prompt a further dive into the history books.' * Weekly Times * 'Although Serong's Preservation and Grenville's The Secret River differ in style, approach and period, they share both a gripping sense of narrative and an unflinching commitment to honestly portraying the bewildering complexity of early encounters between European settlers and indigenous Australians.' * NZ Listener * 'Serong manages to breathe significant life into what is already a fascinating period if Australian colonial history. Preservation is totally engaging historical fiction.' * PS News * 'Really cleverly done' * RN Bookshelf * 'Serong's characters are compelling and, in his reimagining, Preservation gives voice to those who, in the literature of the time, were largely voiceless.' * Sydney Morning Herald * 'Probably the most complete and most nearly accurate picture of the Eastern Australian coast in the first 10 years of white settlement.' * SA Weekend * 'Preservation is an impressive novel, one that revels in the power of narrative to enlighten, horrify and enthral.' * Australian * 'Incredible' * 3RRR * 'Compelling and attractive.' * Otago Daily Times * 'Gripping and extremely accomplished.' * Australian Book Review * 'Jock Serong delivers a story of survival and treachery that examines the principles on which the colony of New South Wales was founded and the impact invading attitudes had on the land's indigenous population.' * 2SER * 'Serong's description of the landscape, the encounters with indigenous groups and his finely drawn descriptions of the players in the story makes this a gripping and compelling novel that will justly draw comparisons with Kate Grenville's acclaimed The Secret River.' -- Mark Rubbo * Readings * 'Draws a tense bow' * Saturday Paper * 'Well-researched.' * Herald Sun * 'One of Australia's most innovative and ambitious crime writers.' * NZ Listener * 'Serong is a talented storyteller.' * Booklist * 'Full of tension and menace.' 'Serong's prose is evocative, his dialogue convincing.' * Sydney Morning Herald *