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My Heart at Evening
I got up heavily. All the unpleasant goings-on at this outpost. On the day of my arrival, Alexander Morton had said some evil was afoot; I wasn’t sure I believed him then, but slurs, and little lies about a key, and the fiddling with the mail. Funny games, I thought, funny games, and the secret language of objects. It all smelt of maliciousness—petty maliciousness. But I still couldn’t quite see how such maliciousness had driven Henry Hellyer to shoot himself.
1832, Van Diemen’s Land. A troubled, unnamed emissary narrates his journey north from Hobart Town to Circular Head (present-day Stanley) where he has been sent to investigate the circumstances surrounding the suicide of Henry Hellyer—surveyor, amateur botanist, artist, and friend to the wife of the Chief Agent in the north.
There he navigates the horror of a fledgling nation. Staying in the deadman’s room, voices come out of the darkness: lies, deceptions, fabrications, and some truth. While he tries to make sense of all the politics, pettiness, and self-preservation, he is fighting demons of his own in this novel that brings to startling life one of our country’s foundational stories. At once a personal reckoning and compelling mystery, My Heart at Evening is an irresistible observation of the forces that shaped Tasmania, and Australia more broadly, from power, to mateship, sexuality, and isolation—forces we still recognise today.
1832, Van Diemen’s Land. A troubled, unnamed emissary narrates his journey north from Hobart Town to Circular Head (present-day Stanley) where he has been sent to investigate the circumstances surrounding the suicide of Henry Hellyer—surveyor, amateur botanist, artist, and friend to the wife of the Chief Agent in the north.
There he navigates the horror of a fledgling nation. Staying in the deadman’s room, voices come out of the darkness: lies, deceptions, fabrications, and some truth. While he tries to make sense of all the politics, pettiness, and self-preservation, he is fighting demons of his own in this novel that brings to startling life one of our country’s foundational stories. At once a personal reckoning and compelling mystery, My Heart at Evening is an irresistible observation of the forces that shaped Tasmania, and Australia more broadly, from power, to mateship, sexuality, and isolation—forces we still recognise today.
209 pages, Paperback
Published August 30, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 28, 2026
I'm glad to have stumbled across this little gem, and learned a new-to-me true story of colonial Tasmania. Henry Hellyer, a pioneering surveyor of Van Diemens Land, and most of the other characters were real people. The correspondence and suicide note exist and have been reproduced faithfully. The fact of a slur against Hellyer is accurate, although it's source cannot be fully verified. And that makes the start of a fascinating and heartbreaking story.
It wasn't all smooth sailing though. While the story is told mainly in first person perspective, I found the author's decision to occasionally tip over into an unusual use of second person quite jarring until I understood what it represented. And because the first time it occurs is in the first paragraph, it took me a good 20 pages or so (10% of the book!) to settle in. Aside from that, I thought this historical mystery felt really fresh, with quite modern sensibilities evident in the storytelling. I think it's a sign of successful historical fiction that I'm left wanting to dig deeper into the story, to know more.
It wasn't all smooth sailing though. While the story is told mainly in first person perspective, I found the author's decision to occasionally tip over into an unusual use of second person quite jarring until I understood what it represented. And because the first time it occurs is in the first paragraph, it took me a good 20 pages or so (10% of the book!) to settle in. Aside from that, I thought this historical mystery felt really fresh, with quite modern sensibilities evident in the storytelling. I think it's a sign of successful historical fiction that I'm left wanting to dig deeper into the story, to know more.
Displaying 1 of 1 review