Book Review: Bereft

For all the controversy about the Miles Franklin award, and it's all-male shortlist, there are some brilliant novels on that list each year. Chris Womersley's dark, gothic Bereft ranks amongst the best novels I've ever read. Set in a country town in NSW in the early 1900s, it is an eerie, affecting and beautifully written hymn to grief and lost innocence. The story centers on the brutal rape and murder of a young girl, and her bereft family, with the First World War coming along to create an even deeper chasm between them. The matriarch, Mary Walker is bedridden with a terrible flu, her daughter Sarah murdered, seemingly at the hands of her older brother Quinn, who has not been seen since the day of Sarah's death. Quinn, the bereaved brother who ran away must carry the suspicions of his family, and the entire town as he goes off to fight the Germans in France. He becomes a decorated soldier, though he tosses away his medal, wanting little more than to see his cherished younger sister alive again, and his family back together. The murder and the war make this impossible, but Quinn is drawn back to his hometown to try to put things right. He is considered a fugitive in the town, and knows that his dad Nathaniel and uncle Robert will kill him if they ever saw him. We see everything through the eyes of Quinn, who has to try to solve his sister's murder and reconnect with his mother, without being caught by his male relatives. It's easy to understand how the murder of a child could tear a family apart, but the truth - what really happened to Sarah - would break this family even further. From it's taut prologue to its haunting final schoolyard rhyme, Bereft is a dark, misty place you won't mind slipping into for a while.