From the bestselling author of The Roving Party, comes a moving father and son story set amidst the beauty and the violence of the poor and preyed upon of our colonial past.
Summer 1874, and Launceston teeters on the brink of anarchy. After abandoning his wife and child many years ago, the Black War veteran Thomas Toosey must return to the city to search for William, his now motherless twelve-year-old son. He travels through the island's northern districts during a time of impossible hardship - hardship that has left its mark on him too. Arriving in Launceston, however, Toosey discovers a town in chaos. He is desperate to find his son amid the looting and destruction, but at every turn he is confronted by the Irish transportee Fitheal Flynn and his companion, the hooded man, to whom Toosey owes a debt that he must repay.
To Name Those Lost is the story of a father's journey. Wilson has an eye for the dirt, the hardness, the sheer dog-eat-doggedness of the lives of the poor. Human nature is revealed in all its horror and beauty as Thomas Toosey struggles with the good and the vile in himself and learns what he holds important.
About the Author
Rohan Wilson holds degrees and diplomas from the universities of Tasmania, Southern Queensland and Melbourne. His first book, The Roving Party, won the 2011 The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award as well as the Margaret Scott Prize, Tasmanian Literary Awards in 2013, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2012, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the 2012 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature Fiction Award, and the 2012 Indie Awards for debut fiction. Rohan was chosen as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists in 2012.
Industry Reviews
Starred quote - 'Wilson's evocation of the Tasmanian setting is pitch-perfect, as are his characterization and the suspense maintained throughout this exquisitely wrought novel.' Booklist (US)
Starred quote - 'Readers who admired the propulsive plotting, atmospheric sense of place, and fierce family loyalty in Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers and Cormac McCarthy's The Road should be equally taken with Wilson's superb novel.' Library Journal (US)
'This is a novel you'll stay up all night reading for its suspenseful plot, then find yourself wanting to do a forensic rereading the next day to more closely examine and admire its exceptional literary power.' Minneapolis Star Tribune (US)