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Rifling Paradise, the new historical fiction novel by master storyteller and author of
Courting Shadows Jem Poster, just received a lovely review from
Kirkus: A dubious character experiences a shattering change of heart during his specimen-collecting expedition to Australia, in a vivid historical novel by a renowned British poet.
Blamed for the suicide of a young boy and hounded out of his home by a mob, Charles Redbourne, the well-born but spendthrift hero of Poster's second work of fiction (
Courting Shadows, 2008), is something of a lost soul in search of redemption. And he will find it at the end of the nightmarish trip he makes to the Antipodes, escaping his past while pursuing his inclination to become a naturalist. Although his host in Sydney, Edward Vane, offers hospitality, he too is a questionable figure, whose relationship with his headstrong, artistic daughter Eleanor seems violent, possibly abusive. Despite his earlier interest in boys, Redbourne is drawn to Eleanor, whose attunement to the land, its spirit and wildlife argues for a sustainable, noninterventionist relationship, unlike Redbourne's, whose specimen-hunting is done with a gun. Matters become more polarized when Redbourne leaves on his expedition into the hinterland, in the company of brutal Bullen and a half-aboriginal boy, Billy. Trapped between Bullen's cruelty and Billy's ancestral sensitivity, Redbourne barely survives and returns a different man. Poster's storytelling is notably fresh and pacey, and his characters have definition, even if they are often emblematic. Redbourne and Eleanor will leave Australia together, but their future is far from certain.
Edgy, intense and engrossing work that delivers lessons astutely."
January Magazine has kind words for Jem Poster's Rifling Shadows, now on sale in bookstores everywhere: "It sounds like hyperbole but I don’t care: Jem Poster’s sophomore effort, Rifling Paradise (Overlook) is as near perfect a book as I have encountered in a very long time. It is a work of historical fiction and the history here -- Australia in the Victorian era -- is pitch perfect. Rifling Paradise looks like a book, but it is not: it’s really a time machine.The story finds minor English landowner, Charles Redbourne, heading to Australia to make an impression as a naturalist, at a time when that was a weirdly competitive field. If Rifling Paradise was just Redbourne’s story, it would be interesting enough: it would be a good book. But when Redbourne’s specimen collecting takes a terrifying turn, we find ourselves with a page turner on our hands.So what is Rifling Paradise? Is it historical fiction? Literary fiction? Is it a psychological thriller? Or the portrait of an age? Well, actually, it’s all of those things. And more. A wonderful book."
Jem Poster's new novel Rifling Paradise gets a positive nod in next week's Publishers Weekly: "Destitution and scandal drive 19th century British gentleman Charles Redbourne on a voyage to Australia in Poster’s atmospheric second novel. Charles hopes to collect specimens of rare wildlife, but his trip soon goes literally and figuratively offtrack. His stay with a family friend is unsettled by his host’s daughter, a volatile artist with a troubled past. Bullen, his expedition manager, clashes violently with their porter, Billy Preece, deriding the servant’s guidance, even though Billy’s Aboriginal heritage provides their only authentic connection to the untamed land they traverse. As the journey devolves toward danger and even death, Poster (Courting Shadows) evokes complex Victorian attitudes toward nature, culture, progress and science. Charles is a compelling portrait of a man moving uneasily among conflicting possibilities of his time."
