The Feather and the Stone

Description

Shaw (River of the Sun) spins a colorful, fast-paced saga set in Australia in the 1870s. Lively plotting and sound characterization enhance the tale of Sibell Delahunty, orphaned by a shipwreck that tosses her onto the beach with handsome, amoral Logan Conal. After being rescued from a band of hostile aborigines by a kind native named Jimmy Moon, the two make their way to Perth and part company. Having been mistreated by the family that takes her in, Sibell flees to an isolated outback station owned by the Hamilton clan. There her mettle is tested further as she encounters kindness as well as deception from the Hamiltons, finds brutality among settlers and natives and deals with thievery, death, fires and devastating cyclones. She meets up with Logan again and falls in love with him; Jimmy Moon is a constant presence--a "noble savage" who wears an emu feather and a stone from a secret site around his neck. Sibell survives betrayal and further tragedy before the somewhat anticlimactic resolution of this frontier adventure. ISBN:9780747239505