Home Is Not a Country

Would you go back in time to save a man’s life even if it meant losing what you had?

Jim, a divorced academic from England, is in Australia on a research trip. He visits his uncle Archie and his wife Nesta, who emigrated there in the 1950s. Their coyness about how they met piques Jim’s interest and he decides to investigate.

This is a story about three people’s journeys – to Australia, across Australia and into their pasts.

Travelling across the country, Jim learns more about his relatives, more about himself and falls in love… But when Jim, Archie and Nesta meet again in Sydney, stories from their pasts collide with news about Archie’s health; Jim must make a decision which will affect all of their lives.

We all bury aspects of our past lives… But if we want to find fulfilment, we need to confront them at some point.

A plot that covers different timelines that affects three characters on their journey to and their lives in Australia. A secret kept for many years and a present day love affair. Well written, worth reading.

This is a sweeping and ambitious novel written with extraordinary skill and compassion. It is richly descriptive, capturing a post-war era of assisted passages to Australia, and the people who travelled to this new land for new lives. There's great narrative energy with thought-provoking central characters who will long stay in the memory.
This is a compelling and brilliantly executed story with a mystery at its heart and layer-upon-layer of perceptive character development. It is tense and addictive and heartbreakingly beautiful.
I savoured every page and didn't want it to end. I look forward to the author's second novel.