The Emancipist: A Saga Of The Early Days Of Australia

The Emancipist: A Saga of the Early Days of Australia

Traces Aidan O'Brien's turbulent progress from poverty and deportation from Ireland to Australia as a convict laborer, to a position of great wealth and power as a landowner and proprietor of a newspaper chain From Publishers Weekly The hero of this massive first novel set in 19th century Ireland and Australia islike the story itselffiery-spirited, credible, compelling. Convicted of "agrarian outrages" during Ireland's Great Famine, Aidan O'Brien is transported to Tasmania, after losing Anna (the girl he loves) to his landlord and marrying another woman. He endures the brutal life of the penal colony, survives escape and recapture and, as a convict laborer, learns to be a shipbuilder. He also falls in love with a girl who reminds him of Anna. After Aidan's sentence is served, he sends to Ireland for his cold wife and independent-minded children; they move to New South Wales, where, free from the stigma of being an "emancipist" (ex-convict), Aidan prospers. This saga captures, through the lives of Aidan's family, friends, associates and enemies, the horrors of rural Ireland in the 1840s and the vigor of youthful Australia. Sweeney's grasp of social history is as authentic as her portrayal of human passion; she is clearly a novelist to watch. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. Foreign rights: Pan Books. January 7Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal In 19th-century Ireland, poor, fatherless Aidan O'Brien is befriended by the local landowner, and hated by his son, Devlin Kelly. Transported to Australia for a crime he didn't commit, Aidan fights to survive, first as a prisoner, then as an "emancipist" (an Australian word for ex-convict) until he attains success and finally happiness. This lengthy first novel has a strong beginning. The scenes in Ireland and the view of Australia's early history are vivid and absorbing. The novel begins to lose momentum with O'Brien's quest for success. His character becomes less sympathetic; his relationships are bewildering, and too neatly packaged at the end. Fans of period sagas will probably enjoy this; certainly they will want to know how the feud between O'Brien and Kelly ends. Lydia Burruel, Mesa P.L., Ariz.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.