This book was so rich and filled with colour- both in the characters and in the description of the landscape and the sunsets. Seen from an artists perspective of colours the story develops around a missing six year old and the various characters trying to find him.
It was an engaging tale and one in which the individual characters are so well portrayed. I definitely did not want the book to end and would highly recommend it.

There is a long tradition in Australian literature of children going missing in nature. The classic of these is Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. These narratives trade on the notion of the unknowability of the Australian landscape and the fear that white settlers had of that landscape. Fiona Macfarlane is well aware of this tradition and claims that she is ‘unsettling’ this settled narrative by telling the story from a number of non-traditional points of view.
The book opens in 1883 on a small landholding in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. Denny, a six year old boy walks out to collect firewood and becomes turned around in a dust storm, losing his way. The boy in one of a bevy of sisters all of whom were away from the property at the wedding of a local girl to the police constable. When the boy is discovered missing, the town swings into action, bringing in outside help and trackers. But as the search drags on, tensions rise, and the discovery of a bloody handkerchief fuels more tension. Macfarlane is not interested in dead children and ensures Denny is found by a couple of wandering artists while the search continues around them.
The search for the missing boy is not so much a driver for the plot here as a catalyst for townsfolk to reveal themselves for who they really are. Denny’s father gets into a fight with his Aboriginal stockman when he unsuccessfully demands that go into forbidden territory. Denny’s teenage sister Cissy is freed from the constraints usually put on her as she joins the search. But in ranging across this array of points of view, Macfarlane quickly loses much of the narrative tension. There is too much going on away from the search, too many characters to check in on, that it feels like there might have been a better way to explore this time and place.
Macfarlane does this while effectively capturing the varying landscapes of the Flinders Ranges. From the arid plains to the secret waterholes and canyons. And in particular the hardscrabble existence of families who were forced to move from cows and sheep to growing wheat in what is at best a marginal landscape. But also within that, the pecking order of wealth and privilege that existed.
Macfarlane interrogates the times themselves and its attitudes through its broad scope of characters. She invites readers to come for the hunt but stay for her deconstruction of the community.

The characterisation of the story is very powerful, and the way the author tells her readers about the disappearance of a 6-year-old boy into the South Australian desert is a brilliant; piece of literary prowess. With every character in this community searching for this 6-year-old boy, she relives the history that made this area and weaves it together into the present day. However, this book is 100 pages too long. This boy was lost for a week, but it seemed like months – the author introduced too many new scenes along the way, some of which were not relevant to the story and therefore unnecessary and could draw the reader’s eye to wander. The story did have a happy ending, but it took as I say too many pages to reach that conclusion.

A dust storm in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia sets the scene for this story. It covers a week in 1883, when a small child goes missing in the storm and the whole of the local community sets out to find him. The book is populated by a diverse range of characters and the story brilliantly describes the inhospitable landscape, the hardship and the community spirit of early Australia, along with the inherent racism of the time. The writing paints very vivid pictures and although not every character is entirely believable, this is an atmospheric page turner which will certainly be on my list for giving as a gift this coming year.

Set in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia over the course of a week in 1883, The Sun Walks Down is a richly woven tapestry with a missing boy at the heart of the story.

After a severe dust storm strikes the small rural settlement of Fairly one September day, six year old Denny is missing in the desert after wandering off from home and losing his way. In the ensuing search for Denny, we meet a cast of diverse and quirky characters directly and indirectly affected by what has happened.

McFarlane paints a vivid picture of colonial Australia, a tough, inhospitable landscape and a life that must be eked out from the harsh land, amidst racial tensions, dispossession, rivalry and superstition.

The writing is rich and descriptive, and the sheer number of characters makes the story somewhat unwieldy in places, but the search for Denny anchors it and gives it purpose and momentum.

I enjoyed the book, both for the descriptive writing and lush setting, but never felt emotionally invested in it. A cinematic ending brings it together beautifully however. I would firmly put this book into the category of one I much admired but didn’t love. I can see this one on awards lists in 2023. 3.5/5 ⭐️ (rounded up to 4 for the writing).

I loved this book. It's full of rich description, colour and the mystery of the outback. The landscape and deep red sunsets are vivid and visual. The harshness of the land and its stark beauty make me long to be there again.

The characterisation is stunning. Each person is superbly delineated, even the minor characters, with all their quirks and foibles, fears and fancies thrust into the light. They are all so human it's impossible not to forgive them for their selfishness and sillyness. Their vulnerabilities and vanities are what make them real and one can't help feeling compassion for them in their all too human weakness.

The story too is engaging as it winds its way through the lives of the various characters. This is such a delicious read, I wanted to stay with them all and see them through what comes next in their lives.

Lyrical prose lifts this sprawling narrative out of being simply too unwieldy - at least for me. It seemed overly long and with too many people with complex, detailed backstories - but ultimately, I think that is meant to reflect the diversity of Australia at that time, and also the sheer daunting scale of this largely unpopulated country and the settlers who came to fill it.
But the writing saved it for me: some gorgeous sentences that deserve to be read more than once. The repeated description of a sunset, each time more beautifully-realised than the last; the palpable horror felt by a lost boy; the tension between newcomers and the indigenous people - all of it amounts to a work very much worth reading.

I loved this book. To be quite honest I might not have picked it up from choice. The description was loaded with doom, or at least a hundred things which could go wrong in this story of a lost boy. The film “Lion” was nudging at my elbow as I read of every parent’s nightmare scenario, but how wrong I was. Each page was loaded with sensory perceptions, the red dust, the colours of the sky, the heat of the day, the cold of the night. The most unlikely characters were aspiring poets, authors and artists, and inevitably almost all these plans would come to nothing. Love, sanctified or not, abounds; love gone stale and love cut short by death. All this as a community of expats and indigenous people search in circles for the boy. The harsh and dangerous miles of bush subjugate the people, keep them in their spheres of routine, deny them success in agriculture and separate them by race and class. Having said all that there are moments of pure joy in the writing, the humour, the characters. The author has an uncanny knack of serving them up intimately, getting under their skin and presenting their viewpoint. Most unusually I was quite tempted to turn back to page one and read it all again, bravo to the author. I feel I know a lot more of what life was like in 19th century Australia now.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an enjoyable read. Thank you for letting me read your book - I found it very good.

Truly a standout book. The landscape of the South Australian desert in the 1880s sets an unsettling backdrop for a moving, gripping story told through unique, believable, and deeply human characters. Really a pleasure to read.

Stunning. Thank you for the opportunity to read. Really grateful to the publisher for this ARC. I hope to read more from the author..

Set in the Australian outback in 1883, this story focuses on a couple of weeks in high summer when 6 year old Denny goes missing. Locals and strangers unite to search for the child and the relationships between many are held up to the light - rich white landowners, tenant farmers, black aboriginal people, police officers, men and women, the young and the old and their place on the land they all inhabit. The tale weaves through the spaces between them all like a ribbon while the sun sets each night in a mysterious blood red light. I found the book slow to start with until the characters became familiar and then I enjoyed the journey through the outback from each of their perspectives. A very good read