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The Tower Mill
A gripping family drama that plays out against a turbulent and controversial political era, this book tells the tale of Susan Kinnane. She is the precocious daughter of conservative parents who spurns the attention of fellow university student Mike Riley in favor of a passionate romance with activist Terry Stoddard. When the South African Rugby team goes on the road, Terry, Susan, and Mike join the anti-apartheid demonstrations outside the Springbok's hotel near the iconic Tower Mill. Late in the night, the riot police charge, and the terrified students are hunted into the darkened park below. What happens next changes each of their lives forever. Eight months later, Susan gives birth to a son, Tom, whose destiny is shaped by a man who is not his father, and by the events of that shocking night. As a lawyer working in London decades later, Tom must return to make peace with the past. This novel combines the youthful passion and enthusiastic activism of the 1970s with the racism of the apartheid era in a vibrant and tumultuous story that will enthrall readers to the final page.
- GenresFiction
307 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
About the author
James Moloney
54 books194 followersMy full name is James Francis Moloney and I was born in Sydney, Australia on 20 September, 1954. When I was seven years old, my family moved to Brisbane and except for the odd year or two, I have lived in Brisbane ever since. At school, I was into every sport going - cricket, footy, swimming - you name it. It's hard to believe now but in High School, I was a champion Long Jumper! After University I became a teacher and then a Teacher Librarian. I moved around from school to school and in 1977-8 found myself in Cunnamulla, a little "outback" town where many Indigenous Australians live. These turned out to be important years for my writing.
In 1980, I look a year's leave, stuffed a backpack full of clothes and went off to see the world. Got to do it, guys! There's so much out there, from things to uplift your spirit to things that make you question the humanity of your fellow man. I stepped over rotting dog carcasses in Mexico city, got all weepy in a roomful of Impressionist paintings and met some fascinating people. Hope you'll do the same one day.
1983 was another big year. I got married and started work at Marist College Ashgrove, an all-boys school in Brisbane, where I stayed for fifteen years. During this time, I became interested in writing for young people, at first using the ideas and experiences gained from my time in Cunnamulla, mixed in with the thinking and wondering I'd done overseas. After my early attempts were rejected, the first of my novels, Crossfire , was published in 1992.
In 1997, my fifth novel for young adults, A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove won the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award. At the end of that year, I decided to leave teaching and become a full time writer.
In the mean time, my wife and I have produced three great children, two of whom are currently studying at University. Photos of them to the right, along with my lovely wife, Kate, who has encouraged me along every step of the way.
Now that I have turned my hobby into my job, I have had to develop some other interests. For exercise, I go cycling along the bike paths around Brisbane. I'm also into great books, great food, movies, travelling, learning to speak French and I dabble in a little painting. In recent years Kate and I have spent an extended period in France, cycled through Vietnam and soon we will be off to the USA.
In 1980, I look a year's leave, stuffed a backpack full of clothes and went off to see the world. Got to do it, guys! There's so much out there, from things to uplift your spirit to things that make you question the humanity of your fellow man. I stepped over rotting dog carcasses in Mexico city, got all weepy in a roomful of Impressionist paintings and met some fascinating people. Hope you'll do the same one day.
1983 was another big year. I got married and started work at Marist College Ashgrove, an all-boys school in Brisbane, where I stayed for fifteen years. During this time, I became interested in writing for young people, at first using the ideas and experiences gained from my time in Cunnamulla, mixed in with the thinking and wondering I'd done overseas. After my early attempts were rejected, the first of my novels, Crossfire , was published in 1992.
In 1997, my fifth novel for young adults, A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove won the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award. At the end of that year, I decided to leave teaching and become a full time writer.
In the mean time, my wife and I have produced three great children, two of whom are currently studying at University. Photos of them to the right, along with my lovely wife, Kate, who has encouraged me along every step of the way.
Now that I have turned my hobby into my job, I have had to develop some other interests. For exercise, I go cycling along the bike paths around Brisbane. I'm also into great books, great food, movies, travelling, learning to speak French and I dabble in a little painting. In recent years Kate and I have spent an extended period in France, cycled through Vietnam and soon we will be off to the USA.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 17, 2019
Very enjoyable. Thought provocating for the mother. Fiction with a light on the politics that I was around for.
October 13, 2012
I won this book in the Goodreads giveaway, but it is a book I would have read anyway, given the Queensland setting and the fact it was based around some significant historical events in Brisbane.
In 1971 the Bjelke-Peterson reign was in full swing in Queensland. So when the Springboks rugby team from Apartheid South Africa arrived, naturally enough there was huge resistance. A large anti-apartheid demonstration takes place outside the Springbok's hotel near the historic Tower Mill. However the police have been given extraordinary powers to squash such displays of civil uprising and they go in hard against the protesters. Amidst all the turmoil a tragedy occurs that will have far reaching consequences for a young university student Susan. The daughter of conservative parents, Susan has found her feet at the University of Queensland and is relishing the freedom and spirit of rebellion her fellow students foster. However that all changes that winter night and it is not until the iconic Fitzgerald Enquiry into police corruption in 1987 that she has the chance to seek justice for the shocking events at the Tower Mill.
Told in the alternating voices of Susan and her son Tom, the story also switches back and forth between the 1970s/80s and present day. This works well, without any confusion of time and place. Although born after that night at the Tower Mill Tom's life is forever shaped by it. Living in London, he has attempted to distance himself from Brisbane, but when he has to come home for a funeral, he finally begins to come to terms with his unconventional upbringing and his ever-changing relationship with his mother.However The Tower Mill also explores the universal themes of family relationships and breakdowns and the effect of social upheaval on those who struggle to accept change.
Probably what I enjoyed most about this book was the Brisbane setting and references to my old university UQ as well as other well known schools, places and events. I was impressed with the attention to detail and accuracy of the historic events the story was told around and how the author has woven a work of fiction around it.
Well written, suspenseful and easy to read The Tower Mill is a story of a different time and political climate, but also an ongoing family saga that keeps your interest right until the end.
In 1971 the Bjelke-Peterson reign was in full swing in Queensland. So when the Springboks rugby team from Apartheid South Africa arrived, naturally enough there was huge resistance. A large anti-apartheid demonstration takes place outside the Springbok's hotel near the historic Tower Mill. However the police have been given extraordinary powers to squash such displays of civil uprising and they go in hard against the protesters. Amidst all the turmoil a tragedy occurs that will have far reaching consequences for a young university student Susan. The daughter of conservative parents, Susan has found her feet at the University of Queensland and is relishing the freedom and spirit of rebellion her fellow students foster. However that all changes that winter night and it is not until the iconic Fitzgerald Enquiry into police corruption in 1987 that she has the chance to seek justice for the shocking events at the Tower Mill.
Told in the alternating voices of Susan and her son Tom, the story also switches back and forth between the 1970s/80s and present day. This works well, without any confusion of time and place. Although born after that night at the Tower Mill Tom's life is forever shaped by it. Living in London, he has attempted to distance himself from Brisbane, but when he has to come home for a funeral, he finally begins to come to terms with his unconventional upbringing and his ever-changing relationship with his mother.However The Tower Mill also explores the universal themes of family relationships and breakdowns and the effect of social upheaval on those who struggle to accept change.
Probably what I enjoyed most about this book was the Brisbane setting and references to my old university UQ as well as other well known schools, places and events. I was impressed with the attention to detail and accuracy of the historic events the story was told around and how the author has woven a work of fiction around it.
Well written, suspenseful and easy to read The Tower Mill is a story of a different time and political climate, but also an ongoing family saga that keeps your interest right until the end.
January 20, 2016
It’s probably hard for Generation X and Y to imagine just how different the 1970s felt for those who lived through that tumultuous period. After the torpor of the 1950s and 60s, grassroots activism achieved all kinds of momentous reforms in Australia and around the world. Public protest stopped the Vietnam War, put the environment on the agenda, demanded abortion law reform, equal rights for women, and nuclear non-proliferation. It was an exciting time, and a time when ordinary citizens felt that they could make a difference to public policy.
In Australia in 1971, all but forgotten now, university students staged massive demonstrations against the Springbok Rugby Tour in protest against the apartheid regime in South Africa. In Queensland, the all-powerful rule of State Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared a State of Emergency for ten days and things turned very nasty indeed with police violently attacking peaceful protestors with batons.
To the astonishment of the rest of Australia, the government was re-elected by an electorate that seemed either blind to, or supportive of the curtailment of civil liberties in that state. Street protests were subsequently made illegal without an impossible-to-get permit, and there were further incidents of police acting with impunity against any dissenters. It took far too long before the ABC Four Corners program exposed the corruption in Queensland and the Fitzgerald Inquiry in 1987 led to the downfall of a government that had ruled by gerrymander with the tacit approval of a deeply conservative electorate.
James Moloney has woven these events into an intriguing family drama.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/11/08/th...
In Australia in 1971, all but forgotten now, university students staged massive demonstrations against the Springbok Rugby Tour in protest against the apartheid regime in South Africa. In Queensland, the all-powerful rule of State Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared a State of Emergency for ten days and things turned very nasty indeed with police violently attacking peaceful protestors with batons.
To the astonishment of the rest of Australia, the government was re-elected by an electorate that seemed either blind to, or supportive of the curtailment of civil liberties in that state. Street protests were subsequently made illegal without an impossible-to-get permit, and there were further incidents of police acting with impunity against any dissenters. It took far too long before the ABC Four Corners program exposed the corruption in Queensland and the Fitzgerald Inquiry in 1987 led to the downfall of a government that had ruled by gerrymander with the tacit approval of a deeply conservative electorate.
James Moloney has woven these events into an intriguing family drama.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/11/08/th...
July 27, 2016
I really wanted to like this book. I loved the premise: there are so many stories to be told out of the horrors of the Bjelke-Petersen years, but they're normally told as broad non-fiction, and I loved the idea of taking an individual's story and telling it as historical fiction. I remembered enjoying Moloney's YA as a teenager, and I had high hopes for this.
This is an incredibly uneven book. The first third was so dreadful I only kept reading because of the subject matter. It showed signs of life when the story hit 1974 in Bindamilla and got readable, and when it got to the Fitzgerald Inquiry at the end of the 1980s I couldn't put it down - only to have a bizarrely uneven ending that was a bit representative of the book as a whole.
As a book about that time, and what that did to people, this book was a pretty good read. At times, such as with the Fitzgerald Inquiry, it felt like it nailed it. But it was weighed down by some genuinely dreadful writing: clunky and unbelievable dialogue and badly-drawn characters, especially female characters, that consistently slide into one-dimensional caricature. Susan's overall story was great, but the telling of it read like a bad caricature of a 70s feminist written by an old guy more than half the time. I'm not normally one to nitpick small details, but it was a sloppily edited book, too.
The Tower Mill could have been such a great novel, and I'm glad I read it because it really did have its moments. It was a great *story*, but one nearly ruined by some egregiously bad writing in the telling of it.
This is an incredibly uneven book. The first third was so dreadful I only kept reading because of the subject matter. It showed signs of life when the story hit 1974 in Bindamilla and got readable, and when it got to the Fitzgerald Inquiry at the end of the 1980s I couldn't put it down - only to have a bizarrely uneven ending that was a bit representative of the book as a whole.
As a book about that time, and what that did to people, this book was a pretty good read. At times, such as with the Fitzgerald Inquiry, it felt like it nailed it. But it was weighed down by some genuinely dreadful writing: clunky and unbelievable dialogue and badly-drawn characters, especially female characters, that consistently slide into one-dimensional caricature. Susan's overall story was great, but the telling of it read like a bad caricature of a 70s feminist written by an old guy more than half the time. I'm not normally one to nitpick small details, but it was a sloppily edited book, too.
The Tower Mill could have been such a great novel, and I'm glad I read it because it really did have its moments. It was a great *story*, but one nearly ruined by some egregiously bad writing in the telling of it.
April 12, 2015
I really enjoyed this book, as much because of the setting and era as the story. I lived in Brisbane in the 1970s and went to University there, so the setting and political background were very familiar to me. But even if you had never heard of Brisbane and Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the writing is so evocative that you would soon be transported there. I particularly liked the author's description of life in an outback town during that era and the conservatism and often narrow-minded and bigoted attitudes of the residents.
The novel is told from two alternate points of view - Susan Kinnane and her son Tom, and takes place over a period of 30 years - from before Tom was born to the present, so we can trace each character's development and their relationship to each other. The novel is really about this relationship, set against a background of turbulent politics and rapid social change. The alternate points of view allow us to become empathetic to both characters, despite the fact they are both at times selfish and pig-headed.
This was one of those books that transported me along and made me feel as if I'd been on a journey myself along with the characters - the best sort of book!
The novel is told from two alternate points of view - Susan Kinnane and her son Tom, and takes place over a period of 30 years - from before Tom was born to the present, so we can trace each character's development and their relationship to each other. The novel is really about this relationship, set against a background of turbulent politics and rapid social change. The alternate points of view allow us to become empathetic to both characters, despite the fact they are both at times selfish and pig-headed.
This was one of those books that transported me along and made me feel as if I'd been on a journey myself along with the characters - the best sort of book!
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December 10, 2012James Moloney is a well known children's and young adult author, with nearly forty titles to his name, including the award winning A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove. His new novel, The Tower Mill, is different in focus. His first adult work, it examines an unusual family, their relationships and their history, against the backdrop of Joh-era Queensland.
Grace interviewed James Moloney for The Book Club's episode of 18 October 2012. The Tower Mill is out through UQP.
Grace interviewed James Moloney for The Book Club's episode of 18 October 2012. The Tower Mill is out through UQP.
October 14, 2012
This was an ok story, which I took a bit to get into.
It's the story of Tom and his Mother Susan and how one single terrible event affects the rest of their lives for years and years! The story is told in various flashbacks with alternating chapters from Susan and Tom. It has a lot of Queensland politics from the 70s and 80s, which (being a bit young back then) I hadn't known a lot about, so it was quite interesting from that perspective too.
By the end I was really involved in the characters and their lives and didn't want to put the book down.
It's the story of Tom and his Mother Susan and how one single terrible event affects the rest of their lives for years and years! The story is told in various flashbacks with alternating chapters from Susan and Tom. It has a lot of Queensland politics from the 70s and 80s, which (being a bit young back then) I hadn't known a lot about, so it was quite interesting from that perspective too.
By the end I was really involved in the characters and their lives and didn't want to put the book down.
September 19, 2013
I really enjoyed this first adult book of James Moloney. I was born the same year as Tom and grew up in 80's Joh-era Brisbane so it was really interesting to read how the 70's and 80's shaped the state. I was only a teenager not interested in politics when Joh finally unravelled so it was great to read about what was occurring around my naive teenager life!
October 28, 2014
I love reading a book that's set in my lifelong city of residence - it makes a nice change reading about landmarks and cultural references that only Brisbanites will get.
This book really highlighted the controversial Joh era, and its fallout, so I found that useful for my own knowledge - the ending lacked lustre though.
This book really highlighted the controversial Joh era, and its fallout, so I found that useful for my own knowledge - the ending lacked lustre though.
February 24, 2014
Was there actually a plot? Or a whiny character sketch of a young woman in 1970s Australia, whose life goes off track when her community-protestor baby daddy is maimed in a street riot by a cop. It gets 2 stars only by way of decent writing.
September 23, 2012
It took me a while to get into this and I think it's well written and that if I'd lived in Brisbane in the 80s it would have resonated with me more
September 27, 2012
While this book didn't really grab my imagination it was interesting to read a story based around the Fitzgerald years in Queensland.
November 1, 2012
So enjoyed this snapshot of life in Queensland in this era - the 1970's. Well done James Moloney!Lots of interesting angles in this read, great characters and stuff to mull over .
December 28, 2015
Another Bookclub book. Not bad, set in Brisbane in the 70's to the present.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews