"English Passengers" by Matthew Kneale

[megustaleer]

In 1857 a boatload of incompetent smugglers from a UK offshore island (The Isle of Man) find themselves compelled to carry English passengers halfway round the world to another offshore island (Tasmania).

Obsessed clergyman, Wilson, assembles a ramshackle expedition to find The Garden Of Eden, which he has calculated to be in Tasmania. One of his co-explorers, Potter, is a scientist whose theory of 'The Destiny of Nations' is based on racial typing.

Meanwhile the action of the white authorities in Tasmania has gradually caused the decline, almost to the point of extinction, of the Tasmanian aboriginals.

We are shown these events from the point of view of the Aboriginals by Peevay, the half-caste child of a raped Aboriginal woman, and the pivotal moment of the novel occurs when Potter steals the body of Peevay's deceased mother for the collection of samples which he is assembling to support his theory.

Quite a complicated book. I was not sure if I liked it or not when I read it, 5 years ago, but it has stuck in my mind and I have been looking forward to finding out what any others who have read it have to say about it.
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