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It was 1886 when Eliza Brightwell and her family arrived in Bannin Bay, Western Australia from England. They land in 1886 on the blood-red sands of Bannin Bay, a fictional stand-in for Broome — and like the real town, simultaneously cosmopolitan and isolated, over a thousand miles from the region’s capital. Everyone believes he’s dead, except for Lizzie whose plucky spirit makes her undeterred in the face of negativity. Set on the northern coast of Western Australia, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter takes place during 1886. This story does make me want to know more about Eliza Broadhurst, one of the people the author used as the starting point in developing the character of Eliza.
It is a siren song in the shape of a stone, sending men to lengths they never dreamed they would go.In that city, Nico Krispis is an 11-year-old Jewish boy whose blue eyes and blond hair deceive, but whose words do not. Pook, a debut novelist, fills the pages with lovely descriptive writing that sometimes feels effortful - especially her heavy-handed use of metaphors and similes - shutters are like "eyelids sewn shut" and water smacks "like a flat palm. While I know what colonizers do to natives (as an Indian), the pearl diving community was new to me. The book also shines an important light on the indigenous people and how they were exploited, enslaved, and abused by this industry (truly horrific). Not believing her father dead and determined to find him, Eliza along with two accomplices, heads off to find Thomas.
If you’re a fan of historical fiction and nature (more particularly aquatic life or sea(side) settings), this one is definitely for you!As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background.
The colonizers enslaved the Aboriginal people, paying them poverty wages, forcing pregnant women to deep dive, some dying in the process. The ocean: what riches lie in wait for those bold enough to take the risk, to be so reckless surely must come with it’s fair share of rewards for the foolhardy, yet you must be willing to sacrifice everything you hold dear should you want to gain that which so many have risked themselves for. Eliza’s probably the most open hearted and honest character we encounter and I absolutely loved her fearlessness and the journey she undertakes was definitely an interesting one. Sergeant Palmer, a brutal man, arrests the first convenient Aboriginal who will no doubt hang for killing Mr Brightwell. An ocean where pearl shells bloom to the size of soup plates, where men are coaxed into unthinkable places and unspeakable acts by the promise of unimaginable riches.For Eliza Brightwell, the quick-witted young protagonist of Lizzie Pook’s debut, “Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter,” the pearl rush makes a bracing change. It was an unexpected pleasure to be transported into another world as a young woman stands up to threats from man and nature in this debut novel. Such an oppressive time in history - women and the Aboriginees were valued as less than and were treated as such. Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here.
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