Aaron Fletcher

A gritty look at running a sheep station in the unforgiving Australian Outback.

This book is composed of three short stories/novellas that tell the overarching story of the Garritty Family.

In the first story, a young man managing a lonely sheep Paddock buys an aborigine woman as a wife, and the couple overcome cultural barriers to become an effective team. This is the most adventurous and romantic section. It’s reminiscent of the part in Jeremiah Johnson before everything goes horribly show more wrong. This is a good western adventure-romance to open the saga.

The second story composes the majority of the novel. The story of an abused wife coming into her own on a sheep station as she is molded by her harsh surroundings. This section is really an ode to friendship as an unlikely friendship blooms between the preachers daughter protagonist and the rough tough daughter of the first story’s couple. This story really takes the reader into the hard life on a sheep station and portrays the period unflinchingly.

The final story is rather short and is about a young teacher moving to the station and becoming the next leader of the Garritty clan. Really a greatest hits of the middle story but is pretty light and closes the novel with hope for the next generation.

If you like your historical fiction on the tough side this is a good pick! show less

This is a well written saga of a man, Patrick Garrity, a son of a female convict who ends up in the Australian outback and develops a family and builds a sheep ranching empire.

You meet his aboriginal wife, watch his family grow and take part in adventures that define him and his family. The book is in 3 parts ... Pat Garrity growing up in an orphanage, leaving there to work on sheep ranch in the outback, meeting his aboriginal woman and marrying her. The next part has them as older in the show more last years of their lives as you are introduced to a new character, Elizabeth a minister's daughter who is forced to marry a lout sheep rancher and is brought out to the ranch with him when he accepts a job on the ranch...you see her develop a sense of worth and eventually marry into the Garrity family with a great friendship with Sheila daughter of Pat Garrity and finally the last book is quite short and is nothing more than introducing another female character who is a cousin to Elizabeth and goes to the ranch where Elizabeth is 20 years older and matriarch of the family.

I really enjoyed the first 2 parts. I could have happily read full novels on each of those parts. I found it frustrating to like characters and have them die of old age.... in this respect it is much like a Jame A. Mitchener novel.

The last part seems like a setup for the next novel in the saga. I WILL HUNT these succeeding books down to read. Fletcher has a gift for painting an excellent picture of sheep ranching in the early days of Australian settlement. The stories are complete, compelling and a joy to read show less