Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter by Lizzie Pook

Synopsis

1886, BANNIN BAY, AUSTRALIA.

The Brightwell family has sailed from England to make their new home in Western Australia. Ten-year-old Eliza knows little of what awaits them on these shores beyond shining pearls and shells like soup plates – the things her father has promised will make their fortune.

~~~

Ten years later and Charles Brightwell, now the bay’s most prolific pearler, goes missing from his ship while out at sea. Whispers from the townsfolk suggest mutiny and murder, but headstrong Eliza, convinced there is more to the story, refuses to believe her father is dead, and it falls to her to ask the questions no one else dares consider.

But in a town teeming with corruption, prejudice and blackmail, Eliza soon learns that the truth can cost more than pearls, and she must decide just how much she is willing to pay – and how far she is willing to go – to find it . . .

Review
The first thing I noted on receiving this book from Mantle Books is how beautiful the cover is. It has a pearlesque look and feel that shimmers in the light which ties in with the plot of this book. Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is a stunning debut set in Australia in the late nineteenth century, and focuses on the danger and excitement of the Pearl Industry and the effect on the native population. At the centre of this book is Eliza Brightwell whose father owns a lugger that takes divers out to dive for pearls. After one such journey her brother returns but her father does not, and neither he or anyone else knows what happened to him. Eliza cannot accept his disappearance so sets her self on a perilous mission to find out what happened to her father, even if that means putting her self in danger. This is a fascinating story about colonialism, a daughters love for her father and how even the good people may have secrets to hide.

It is really hard to believe that this is Lizzie Pook’s debut novel. She writes like an artist paints, with vivid colours and an astute attention to detail. The world she paints is full of wildlife, from the beautiful birds to the annoying cockroaches, from the wallabies in the outback to the Kookaburras whose cry is like a human laugh. I was lost in her descriptions of Bannin Bay, a harsh landscape, of heat and red dust and of the multi cultural society brought together in interest of fishing for pearls. Whilst the landscape is harsh so is the industry of pearling, fraught with danger from sharks and other marine life as well as the effects from coming up from the sea bed too quickly. Lizzie Pook starts the book acknowledging the origional inhabotants of the Australia, the aborigionals and Torres Straight Islander peoples who suffered at the hands of these Pearlers. They were displaced into camps, treated as inferior, abused and had no rights. Whilst it maybe multi cultural it was still the white Europeans who were seen as superior, who tried to convert those who they saw as inferior to Christianity.

As a central character Eliza is intruguing. She is not someone who conforms easily, refusing to wear gloves to protect her skin, goes around the Bay collecting botanical and animal specimens like her father to record in her journal, and when her father goes missing she is determined to find out what happened. Eliza pushes the boundaries of where women are allowed to go and what they are allowed to do in this partiarchal society in her search for answers, and along the way she looses her naivety, realising that even good people sometimes have secrets that need protecting. As well as Eliza there are a fabulous cast of characters, from her friend Min who has to work as a prostitute, to Axel who helps Eliza to find answers and the violent and brutal police officer Archibald Parker who abuses his position against the native population. All the characters are full of life, fascinating and given the same attention to detail as the backdrop and historical detail.

Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is a stunning debut novel that captured my imagination taking me to nineteenth century Australia. This book is full of historical detail yet Lizzie Pook writes in such a way that it doesn’t feel as if you are being overwhelmed. Lizzie Pook’s descriptive prose captures the atmosphere of Bannin Island with it’s diverse population, plethora of flora and fauna and the danger of the Pearl Industry. This is historical fiction at it’s best, well researched, beautifully written and with a fascinating plot line. Simply sublime!!

I would like to thank Mantle Books for sending me an advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.