Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Jane Rawson, Transit Lounge, $29.95.
The fact that life is interdependent is a well-known fact. However, being conscious of that dependency is what’s so amazing to grasp here.
From the Wreck can be classified as an environmental narrative, with some elements drawn from history.
In part, it’s the extraordinary story of George Hills. Rawson knew her great-great-grandfather was on the steamship Admella that was wrecked on 6 August 1859 on Carpenters Reef, off the coast of South Australia.
Jane is attributed as saying she began this book in an effort to record and ascertain historical facts from her family’s past. However, it’s the direction of the story from here that’s astonishing.
We then go along on a lengthy consequence of this tragedy through the standpoint of three characters: George Hills; Henry, his death-obsessed son; and a nameless shape-shifting creature from a different dimension that’s hooked itself to their family.
George’s fractured life is intertwined with that of an unearthly figure, who seeks refuge on earth. He sees this woman interacting with the horses on board, licking the foam around their mouths. Not being able to make sense of this, he goes around the ship looking for her. She cannot be found.
George is haunted by memories, being one of 23 people who survived the wreck. He is also troubled by the disappearance of a fellow survivor. The mysterious relationship between the three characters builds progressively in strength, sporadically slipping into straight fantasy about the future, even dismay.
That sinking feeling just does not go away, of experiential solitude and being co-dependent. We can dramatise the effects of climate change on people and the world, but it’s bolstered with a responsiveness of the affinity felt by human, animal and ethereal alike.
