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Preservation, based on the true story of the wreck of the Sydney Cove, sees master storyteller Jock Serong turn his talents to historical narrative.
On a beach not far from the isolated settlement of Sydney in 1797, a fishing boat picks up three shipwreck survivors, distressed and terribly injured. They have walked hundreds of miles across a landscape whose features—and inhabitants—they have no way of comprehending. They have lost fourteen companions along the way. Their accounts of the ordeal are evasive.
It is Lieutenant Joshua Grayling’s task to investigate the story. He comes to realise that those fourteen deaths were contrived by one calculating mind and, as the full horror of the men’s journey emerges, he begins to wonder whether the ruthless killer poses a danger to his own family.
REVIEWS and INTERVIEWS
3CR interview
3RRR: Backstory (09:10)
ABC Hobart: Your Afternoon (4:30)
ABC Melbourne: The Friday Review (39:45)
ABC Radio National: Blueprint for Living
ABC Radio National: The Bookshelf
Age ‘Serong's characters are compelling and, in his reimagining, Preservation gives voice to those who, in the literature of the time, were largely voiceless’
ANZ Litlovers
Artshub
Australian ($) ‘Preservation is an impressive novel, one that revels in the power of narrative to enlighten, horrify and enthral’
Australian Book Review
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Final Draft: Great Conversations
Readings: ‘Full of tension and menace.’
Saturday Paper
andPreservation
‘Serong’s prose is evocative, his dialogue convincing.’
‘Full of tension and menace.’
‘A riveting and brutal tale.’
‘Serong is a talented storyteller.’
‘One of Australia’s most innovative and ambitious crime writers.’
‘Well-researched.’
‘Draws a tense bow’
‘Serong’s description of the landscape, the encounters with indigenous groups and his finely drawn descriptions of the players in the story makes this a gripping and compelling novel that will justly draw comparisons with Kate Grenville’s acclaimed The Secret River.’
‘Jock Serong delivers a story of survival and treachery that examines the principles on which the colony of New South Wales was founded and the impact invading attitudes had on the land’s indigenous population.’
‘Gripping and extremely accomplished.’
‘Compelling and attractive.’
‘Incredible’
‘Preservation is an impressive novel, one that revels in the power of narrative to enlighten, horrify and enthral.’
‘Probably the most complete and most nearly accurate picture of the Eastern Australian coast in the first 10 years of white settlement.‘
‘Serong’s characters are compelling and, in his reimagining, Preservation gives voice to those who, in the literature of the time, were largely voiceless.’
‘Really cleverly done’
‘Serong manages to breathe significant life into what is already a fascinating period if Australian colonial history. Preservation is totally engaging historical fiction.’
‘Although Serong’s Preservation and Grenville’s The Secret River differ in style, approach and period, they share both a gripping sense of narrative and an unflinching commitment to honestly portraying the bewildering complexity of early encounters between European settlers and indigenous Australians.’
‘A great work of fiction to prompt a further dive into the history books.’
