Jock Serong’s historical novel The Burning Island is narrated by Eliza Grayling, a 19th century Australian woman who has left the prospects of marriage behind. But in spite of not being married (and no children), she’s weighed down by responsibility to her drunken, blind father Joshua, a hermit who lives with rage and a burning desire for revenge. One day, at the marketplace, Eliza realises she’s being followed by Srinivas a man who’s looking for her father. Srinivas makes a proposal to Joshua: he will outfit a ship for a voyage to recover or discover the truth about the Howrah, a ship that disappeared along with its crew and passengers. It seems a strange task for an elderly, blind, drunk infirm man, but Srinivas has a bitter tale to tell. He suspects that the Howrah has been captured and sunk by Figge, a sinister figure in the Sydney Cove shipwreck. Joshua, as a “young lieutenant working as an aide to Governor Hunter” investigated the shipwreck and came to believe that Figge was responsible for the deaths of many of the survivors. Figge escaped before he could be brought to trial but since then Figge “was a tumour” in Joshua’s soul.



Srinivas, another survivor from the Sydney Cove shipwreck, claims that Figge has dogged him relentlessly over the years and, further, that every bad thing that has occurred in his life has somehow been orchestrated by Figge–a man who lurks near in the background and yet never shows himself. Srinivas argues that Joshua will be able to sniff out the truth about the missing ship and also be able to identify Figge if necessary.

Of course there so much wrong with this plan, but Joshua who is already in self-destructive mode fueled by a single minded drive for revenge agrees to go, and Eliza choses to accompany him on the trip.

The Burning Island is a rip-roaring adventure tale, but it’s not non-stop action. A great deal of the book’s focus is on the sea voyage and Serong’s evocative writing brings the wonder of the voyage to life. As expected, animals do not fare well in this tale and some sections were hard to read. As with many historical novels, there are some anachronisms, and Eliza’s character is somewhat unconvincing. There’s a captain who dresses in women’s clothes and I found this ridiculous, although it is explained later, and there’s a sleazy doctor on board the ship who seems a blend of Svengali and vivisectionist. The Great Reveal is screamingly obvious but then one of the book’s subthemes in blindness–literal and figurative. Finally, the sufferings of the aborigines under the guise of the steamroller of progress in well integrated into the tale.

Preservation concerns the Sydney Cove shipwreck and Joshua Grayling.

Review copy

I've always regretted I didn't read The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong when it was released.

I've only heard amazing things about it so leapt at the chance to read Serong's latest release. What I hadn't realised about The Burning Island however, was that it is historical fiction (which isn't a favourite of mine) and that it is actually the sequel to his earlier work Preservation.

It meant I probably didn't appreciate the story on offer as much as I might otherwise have but I could certainly appreciate his beautiful prose and vivid descriptions of the islands of the Bass Strait and harsh coastline and living conditions of the time.

BLURB INSERTED HERE

I actually felt quite lost a few times. I didn't entirely understand the point of Eliza and (former Lieutenant) Joshua's mission or his vehemence towards (Mr) Figge. I eventually paused my reading to check other reviews on Goodreads - which is something I don't usually do, lest I be inadvertently influenced. I did note then others talked about how much the events of Preservation set the scene for this second in the series. 

"I felt a weariness come over me. My father was hopelessly fixated upon a man who had wronged him thirty-three years ago. He would be as old as my father now and quite likely just as enfeebled." pp 30-31

The pace is almost plodding for much of the novel, with a scurry of activity towards the end. The slow pace however isn't a bad thing. In some ways, the plot is secondary to the sense of place and the small moments on offer. Through these and the characters Serong offers a lot of self-reflection and contemplation.

"We choose our memories, I believe. We take the recollections and assemble them and tend them like a garden. We proceed by small dignities. That is how you prevail. That is how you can stand up from your bed in the morning....

You must be feeling all these things, and choosing among them. You decide. You are fated to carry this all your days now, this loss. But you may alter its shape; that is the one grace permitted to you." p 338

I've mentioned before that I'm not a visual person. I never read a book and picture the characters or scenery. I worry sometimes it means that descriptions of beautiful vistas are wasted on me, but I realise I can still appreciate the beauty of the words and the phrasing without actually 'seeing' any of it.

Serong's prose are elegant and descriptive. And often very visceral.

"Sydney roiled about: raucous and uncaring, a stripling at forty-two years of age. Bullocks and horses splattered the dust of the street. Voices hailed and harangued; someone yelling about oysters. Scrapping children, the eyes of the old folk upon them upon them, wondering in their breasts if these generations differed somehow for the accident of their birth. We do differ, down to the bones. And yet still we look homeward." p 2

In Eliza we have smart and blunt narrator. She's honest about her own shortcomings, and pragmatic about life in general. Her relationship with her alcoholic and blind father - her frustration, anger and helplessness is palpable and certainly relatable. 

Although I didn't understand much of the motivation for the events of this novel, missing backstory and context, I could still appreciate Serong's beautiful prose and the powerful and confronting reflection of Australia's past.

"You don't understand it cause you want a simple answer." p 266

There's something quintessentially Australian about this book even though it's not really about parts of our history and culture we discuss. Serong has obviously done an inordinate amount of research - or just knows shitloads about our history, the sealing industry, sailing and the land and islands of the Bass Strait.

Through the voyagers' island visits here we see a blending of cultures and customs which I think reflects the Australia of today. Sadly there's also an acceptance of past wrongs and a kind-of pragmatic approach to making the best of the hand we've been dealt which I think is something that we've become far too accustomed to. 

I was a little lost in the final stages of this book and—as I've been sidetracked with my university studies this review has taken about two weeks—I've now read the last quarter of the book three times and think I've absorbed a little more each time, and have a better understanding of the events at the end. I'm not sure I'm engaged enough to read more in this series but Serong's beautiful words and poetic phrasing leaves me in no doubt I want to read his other work.

In this follow up to Preservation, decades have passed and Lieutenant Joshua Grayling is now a broken man; a blind alcoholic, living as a recluse and heavily dependent on his daughter Eliza. One day an Indian man called Srinivas turns up, who turns out to be the lascar who was one of the victims in the crimes that the younger Grayling investigated. Srinivas is convinced that the criminal Figge has returned and is baiting Grayling to come out for a final showdown. Against Eliza's strong advice, Grayling agrees to Srinvas' request to confront Figge and put an end to his crimes. This means that Eliza is dragooned into their quest as well.

The two of them board the Moonbird and sail down the coast to the islands where the original crimes took place. Accompanying them is the charismatic Doctor Gideon, whom the virginal Eliza is strangely attracted to, as he explains his excursions into natural history to her.

Once the islands are reached, the little crew encounter some small settlements on a few of them, and find themselves in increasing danger, as the quest to find Figge reaches its climax.

This is an evocative and taut historical drama, based in part on the history of the Tasmanian Furneaux Islands. Serong is an author who can turn his hand to almost any genre, and he has delivered another excellent work here. The next episode in the Grayling story will be keenly awaited.

As a side-note, I would definitely recommend that people read Preservation before picking up this novel, as that would make many things in it much clearer.

This was a disappointing read for me. Unlike other books by Jock Serong, not a lot happened in this one, which is surprising, as all his other books are full of action.

The other downsides for me were:

1) the twist in the plot was quite obvious
2) the sea journey went on and on
3) the visits to the various islands on the journey didn't add anything to the storyline

This book should have been edited, thus giving the storyline a far better pace and more focus.

Having said all of the above though, the actual writing was good, and I look forward to reading Jock Serong's next novel.

It was 1830 and thirty-two-year-old Eliza Grayling was at the markets when she was aware of being watched. The man followed her until she confronted him and learned he was Srinivas, who had known her father in days gone by. Former Lieutenant Joshua Grayling was now reclusive and blind, and Eliza cared for him. What Srinivas wanted was something Eliza would not encourage. But before much time had passed, Eliza joined Joshua – as his carer and his eyes – on the Moonbird in search of a missing vessel. The Bass Strait was a dangerous stretch of sea for a voyage and one such as this was bound to have a bad outcome…

The Burning Island is the 2nd in the Grayling trilogy and follows on from Preservation – 33 years from the end of that novel. Eliza has lived in Sydney her whole life and she’s an independent spinster who cares for her father. The vastness of the ocean around Bass Strait; the journey they took to find the missing ship and her cargo; her father’s obsession – all narrated in Eliza’s voice, told a moving, descriptive story. Part fact, part fiction by Australian author Jock Serong, The Burning Island is to be recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

The Burning Island is my first experience of Jock Serong’s writing, and on the strength of this novel it will not be my last. I was immediately struck by the quality of his prose. Not decadent but fecund with descriptions of precision and nuance that evoked both subtle changes in mood and nature’s awe-inspiring grandeur. Continue reading review at Booklover Book Reviews: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2020/09/the-burning-island-by-jock-serong-review-engrossing-prose.html

I just finished reading my first Jock Serong and he absolutely did not disappoint. I'm honored to have read this just as it became available to the public because The Burning Island is not one to miss.

What I liked:
👉 mysterious characters
👉 strong father / daughter relationship
👉 exploration of Furneaux Islands
👉 pirate-like theme
👉 historical fiction
👉 award-winning Australian author
👉 Book two of three (Preservation book 1)

SYNOPSIS of THE BURNING ISLAND
Eliza Grayling has lived in Sydney for thirty-two years; never married because always considered too tall, too stern and now…too old. So, she looks after her drunken, blind father curious about his past. There seems to have been a constant ghost: an old hostility. Exactly who is Joshua Grayling and what or who is haunting him?

When Srinivas shows up with a story of a missing ship: crew, cargo and passengers all believed to be lost supposedly thanks to a Mr. Figge, Eliza remembers the mythical figure who occupies the unsettling story her father, Joshua would sometimes tell. On upon hearing about the loss of the Howrah, Joshua is eager to draw out his nemesis. Meanwhile, Eliza is aware of how this could worsen her father’s drinking problem and feels his taking part is ill-advised. There is only one thing to do…she must go along.

Note: I did not read Preservation and do not feel it is necessary to understand the storyline in The Burning Island. Though, I will be adding it to my want to read pile.

Eliza Grayling - a woman who tends to her aging, blind alcoholic of a father - is approached by Srinivas, a Bengali Indian. Srinivas has a tale to tell her of a ship, lost with all its cargo and passengers, many of whom were women. He is not unfamiliar with ships lost to the sea or the pirates who sail on them; indeed, he believes that the person behind the disappearance of this ship is the mysterious Mr. Figge, with whom he sailed when Srinivas was merely a young orderly on another ship that foundered many years ago.

In this time, though, with this ship, Srinivas wants to enlist the help of Eliza's father Joshua, who is also acquainted with Figge, and who also has business to settle with a man Eliza had thought more a myth than monster.

Eliza, for her part, points out that her father is in no ship to put out to sea, and that he hasn't sailed in many years. Joshua insists, however, and because Eliza decides she must go as well, to care for him, the three of them embark on a journey to the Bass Strait on a ship called The Moonbird, along with a pair of convict brothers, a doctor studying marine life, and the crossdressing master of the ship.

The narrative language is lush, at times soaring so high one might think it will never alight on the page again. There are brief moments when it skips along the line marking the abyss of purple prose, but dances away before falling in. The book is not a fast read, nor is it without the weight of being informed by actual events. Readers who stay with the book will be rewarded through its ups and downs by a story well and remarkably told.

Five stars out of five.

Thanks to Text Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy.

I found this to be a very well written book which brings to light some of the lesser known and not particularly nice aspects of Australia's past.

The main story is a bit thin but there is so much more in the book starting with life in old Sydney town and then moving on to a dangerous sea voyage on a small ship around the Bass Strait islands. At the end of the book Serong fills the reader in with information about how much of his story is based in fact and how much is his fiction.

Parts of the voyage seemed long and uneventful and I was not enamored with the some of the Doctor's scientific experiments. I had to skim the nastier bits. However the beautiful descriptions of the sea and the islands were well worth reading every single word.

I wonder if we will find out what happens to Eliza and Argyle in the next book.

The latest novel from master storyteller Jock Serong, is a sequel to his darkly exciting book, Preservation, set 33 years later. According to an article I read in the Australian Financial Review, there will eventually be a trilogy paying tribute to his fascination with the Furneaux Islands of Bass Strait. And I have to say - he's definitely onto something. While I think The Burning Island could be read as a standalone, I really wouldn't recommend it as the reading experience is going to be much richer with the more detailed background knowledge of what happened in the first instalment.

It's towards the end of 1830 and we are in Parramatta. Eliza Grayling is a 32yo, tall and fiercely intelligent spinster-governess. She's content with her situation - not happy really, but content - as it allows her the time and freedom to keep an eye on her father, former Lieutenant Joshua Grayling. He needs it, too. He's suffered a massive fall from grace and is now an aged, blind, reclusive, grieving alcoholic. In the opening pages Eliza is approached in the street by a man who is trying to locate her father in order to put a business proposition to him. The man is none other than Srinivas, former lascar from the Sydney Cove. These days he's a prosperous trader but he's had a ship and its cargo go missing, and he thinks their old nemesis might be behind it. He wants Joshua Grayling to go looking for the missing ship. Eliza is beyond scornful of this idea - her father is blind, after all. But Joshua is immediately drawn to the possibility of confrontation, so between the two men, they wear Eliza down and she agrees to accompany her father on the voyage, to be his eyes and his carer. Off they sail, aboard the Moonbird, to Bass's strait.

This is a tale of exploration of the Furneaux group of islands, and the small contingent methodically sails from island to island in search of evidence of the missing ship. Some of the islands are settled by European sealers and their tyereelore wives, lawless by reputation, but perhaps in many cases simply characterised that way due to their distance from law enforcement in Van Diemens Land/lutruwita. A lot of the tension in the story comes from the meetings with these strangers - not knowing whether they are friend or foe. Throw in an encounter with one of George Robinson's proxies, rounding up the Palawa people from the islands (mostly women and children but some men as well) to take them away to be Christianised, and there is a veritable rollercoaster of colonial thrills.

The entire story is told from Eliza'a point of view, giving it a lot more texture than Preservation had. By that I mean there are some moments of softness and light, in contrast to Preservation's hard darkness. I think it's for this reason that I enjoyed the reading experience much more this time (but don't get me wrong - Preservation was a really good story). The other big factor for me was that this one is set largely in the islands, giving Serong scope to draw on the history of the local indigenous people. It's something I am thirsty to learn about. (I was born and brought up in Tasmania, and having lived there the greater portion of my life it was only relatively recently that I learned the name lutruwita - we just weren't taught this stuff at school!)

Knowing there is a 3rd book to come, my mind has been racing, working through the loose ends, wondering where Serong will take this saga next. I can barely wait!

“The surface was calm enough to reflect the galaxies, so that it looked as though the universe swirled all around us above and below, as if up and down had ceased to exist and only all around remained: the Moonbird was aloft and freed of its own weight.”

The Burning Island is the fifth novel by award-winning Australian author, Jock Serong and is a sequel to his earlier novel featuring Joshua Grayling, Preservation. When thirty-two-year-old tutor, Eliza Grayling is followed home from town by an ageing Indian, she cannot, for one moment, conceive that she will be, at his suggestion, setting out on a journey to Bass’s Strait with her ageing, blind father, mere days later.

Srinivas has come to her with a story of a missing ship: crew, cargo and passengers all believed lost, the wreckage of which he blames on a certain Mr Figge, the almost mythical figure who inhabits the disturbing story her father, Joshua sometimes tells. Once in the service of Governor Hunter, on hearing about the loss of the Howrah, the former Lieutenant exhibits uncharacteristic enthusiasm for the proposed investigatory voyage, clearly eager to draw out his nemesis. Eliza is well aware of her father’s problem with drink, and feels that his taking part is inadvisable.

What, more than anything, sways Eliza to participate in this rather nebulous quest, is the vessel itself, a Danish schooner named The Moonbird: “I have no regard for the idea that it is possible to love an inanimate object. I will choose instead to say that this modest boat, perhaps eighty feet of her, was animate. And she was entangled, right alongside me, in a venture that made no sense. I felt she was on my side … I felt the boat cared for us in our individual plights, held us cupped somehow: carrying us, rather than being sailed by us.”

The master that Srinivas has engaged for The Moonbird is a rather sombre man who surprises them all by garbing himself in a range of fetching dresses; the crew are two young convicts, capable brothers raised separately, who are both tender and volatile with each other; the paying passenger is a medical doctor intent on research of sea creatures for human nutrition, who fills the captain’s quarters with a laboratory’s worth of equipment and specimens.

The close quarters serve to quickly amplify both passions and conflicts, but it is not until a gross betrayal of trust and several deaths that the true situation is known.

Serong gives the reader an entrancing tale laced with some exquisite descriptive prose: “a wide body of water opened to the north of us, flat and serene and impossibly lovely. It made a chalky blue-green over the sandflats, a blue of royalty over the deeps, shades of lilac and mauve where a haze blended the two, further away. And in the places where waves rolled gently over reefs, other colours would dare to intrude upon the chorus of those shades; a burst of orange and brown where the surge lifted kelp to the surface, an explosion of white as the wave broke and dissipated”

He gives his complex characters some wise words and insightful observations: “Anyone who loves intensely will believe it is they who emit the light, they who shine warmth on the other. There is a selfcentredness in love, so strong that we fail to notice the loved one illuminating us” and, on grief: “You are fated to carry this all your days now, this loss. But you may alter its shape; that is the one grace permitted you.”

The Author’s Note details the actual historical events that form part of the story; readers will be grateful for the detailed map included; Serong’s extensive research is apparent on every page, touching on the structure of island sealing communities, the appalling treatment of indigenous Tasmanians by white settlers and government, and the “Christian” activities of certain nineteenth-Century evangelists, to name a few topics. This is a powerful piece of Australian historical fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Text Publishing.

‘I had been aware of the man in the corner of my vision for an hour or more.’

Sydney, 1830. Eliza Grayling, thirty-two years old, has lived in Sydney all her life. Unmarried, she lives by herself and looks out for her father Joshua, a reclusive alcoholic. There is something in Joshua’s past that haunts him. Something that happened before she was born, something he does not speak about.

‘Circumstances are strands in a rope … it was their combination that mattered.’

And then, another man from the past arrives. Srinivas, whose ship the Howrah has been lost. Srinivas wants Joshua’s help. He believes that foul play is involved, in the islands of the Furneaux group. After following Eliza, Srinivas meets with Grayling. Grayling remembers him and agrees to help. He sees an opportunity to meet with his nemesis, Figge. An opportunity to revisit and put right what went wrong thirty-three years earlier.

Joshua Grayling is blind: Eliza feels obliged to travel with him. They are to travel on the Moonbird, with a small crew, including Dr Gideon who is a medical doctor and an amateur naturalist.

What follows is an extraordinary voyage at a time when sealers were operating in the Furneaux group and when George Augustus Robinson’s agents actively seeking to remove Indigenous women from the islands. Mr Serong brings his characters to life: the flawed fictional characters as well as the real sealers and the tyereelore women living with them on the islands. It is a dark tale of pursuit, strength and weakness, and the power of the past over the present. Will Joshua Grayling find the answers he is looking for? Will Eliza be able to protect him from himself? It is an epic journey, a brilliantly written novel which, having given me some unforgettable images, has claimed its own space in my memory.

Mr Serong’s Author’s Note includes the facts around which this fiction is woven. He also provides some suggested reading for those of us who want to know more about the Furneaux group and those who lived there.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Burning Island, by Jock Serong, is a historical fiction story that takes place in 1830 based upon the shipwreck of the "Howrah". Believing it was not the work of nature, the Bengali, Srinivas, asks Joshua Grayling to find out the mystery of what happened to the Howrah, along with it's cargo and the list of 30 passengers that are all missing, half of which were woman. Srinivas and Joshua Grayling feel an evildoer is responsible for this, a man known by the name of Mister Figge. Grayling jumps at the chance to confront him and bring him down despite the fact he hasn't sailed for years, he's completely blind, and totally addicted to alcohol, being drunk nearly all the time. His daughter, Eliza Grayling, tall, outspoken, in her 30's never married, adamantly insists her father not go, and detests his nearly constant state of drunkenness, but to no avail. She resigns herself to going with her father, and a small crew, including the master of the ship, Argyle, who wears dresses on the ship. The vessel chosen for the tasks, is a vessel called, "Moonbird". They have no idea what awaits all of them on this journey!

The Burning Island was an intriguing read. Some of the scientific marine biology may be a bit more of schooling than some would prefer, but nevertheless, the characters were colorful and diverse, there was mystery, excitement, twists, and a surprise ending. Also, the Author's Note at the end was enjoyable and informative. Well done.

4 STARS.
My thanks to Netgalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Serong's writing is quite varied but this time he bases the story on a few historical facts of the 1830s similar to what he did with [book:Preservation|40515001].
Serong's narrator is a 30ish maiden who spends her time trying to educate two spoilt brats and looking after her reclusive, drunk father. Her father's past catches up with them and off they go on a hunt through the islands of Bass Strait looking for her father's evil nemesis. In their journey they experience the wildness of the sealers and escapees who have made lives on these remote islands.
The book covers the dark episodes of this period - forceable kidnapping of Aboriginal women, desecration of the sealing and mutton bird populations, the Government's ham-fisted attempts to round up the Aboriginal population to give them a Christian upbringing, the acts of piracy to lure innocent shipping to destruction and the drunkenness and alcoholism of many.
The writing and story lines with various coincidences, bad guys and good women reads like a book from that period. Serong does his usual fine job again showing his versatility and talents.

Thank you NetGalley and Text Publishing for the eARC.
This was a bit of a tough read for me. It started out with Eliza Grayling, a tall, stern woman, at 32 years old not likely to ever get married, being followed by a dark stranger. He has a strange request for her: find an enemy from the past (both of his and Eliza's father) who has most probably sunk his ship. He wants her blind father, who she's been looking after since the death of her mother, to go after their mutual nemesis. Unfortunately, her father is an alcoholic who needs to be monitored all the time.
Against her instinct, they go on an incredible sea journey fraught with danger.
It's an incredibly well researched and written book, but there were many parts concerning experiments by a doctor, that I struggled through. It was too complicated for me😢 But it's a good adventure with lots of interesting historical facts.