The Far-Back Country

by Kate Lyons

A superbly written and compelling novel about the bonds of family and home set against the outback landscape.

In 1979, at the age of fourteen, Ray McCullough ran away from his home on a western New South Wales sheep property following a violent confrontation with his dad, Jim McCullough. He left behind his mother, Delly, and his sisters, Ursula and Tilda.

Now forty-one, Ray works as an itinerant cook and labourer across the remote outback. A practical man in love with history, landscape and solitude, he believes he suffers from an inherited streak of violence. A good man who thinks he is bad, Ray has spent his life running away from memories of family and home.

When the body of a man is found in a country pub along with Ray's identification, Ursula once again takes up the search which has defined most of her adult life. It leads her first to her home town and a confrontation with her elderly father, then further, into far western NSW.

Six months earlier, on hearing of the death of Delly McCullough, Ray embarks on a journey of his own, searching for Ursula and news of Delly, then meeting his father again for the first time in over thirty years. Along the way he is drawn unwillingly into a new life with troubled fourteen-year-old Mick and Mick's mother Lily, on their failing family farm near Bourke.

The Far-Back Country is an extraordinary story about memory, mistaken identity, false knowledge and how the idea of family can define us.

384 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2018

About the author

Kate Lyons was born in 1965 in outback New South Wales. She has had her short fiction and poetry published in a range of Australian literary journals. Her first novel, The Water Underneath, was shortlisted in the 1999 The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award and was published by Allen & Unwin in 2001. Her second novel The Corner of Your Eye was published by Allen & Unwin in 2006.

The Water Underneath was shortlisted for the Nita B. Kibble Literary Award (Dobbie Award) and the Fellowship of Australian Writers Melbourne University Press Literature Award, and was a notable book in the 2001 Pan Pacific Kiriyama Prize.

She holds a Doctor of Creative Arts degree from the University of Technology Sydney and was the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts Writing Fellow in 2006. Kate lives in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales.

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written but oh so depressing. I struggle with these books about people living desperate lives in poverty in outback places in Australia or in fact any other country in the world. I probably should not have read this book at the same time as Where the Crawdads Sing which is also digging me into a big black hole of sadness.

A good book, well written but probably best reviewed by someone other than me!

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
The Far-Back Country signals the third and latest novel released by Australian author Kate Lyons. As a big ambassador for Australian women writers, the fact that Kate Lyons has escaped my attention until now is regrettable. However, after reading The Far-Back Country, I plan to rectify with relationship with Ms Lyons and seek out her back list. The Far-Back Country is best defined as a remote based family drama and a resolute outback mystery novel, marked by stark prose.

Ray McCullough is one of two central players in The Far-Back Country. Ray is just a youth when he makes the decision to run away from his family’s remote sheep property, located in rural NSW. The pressures placed on Ray by his father means Ray has reached boiling point. He leaves behind both a mother and two sisters. Ray’s departure has a lasting impact on this fractured family unit. We learn as the years have gone by that Ray has become a drifter. He has floated in and out of various outback posts. Ray has lived a life of little connection, but he has a close affinity to the land. He still blames himself for his father’s treatment of him and wonders if this propensity towards violence is an in-built trait. Things come to a head for Ray and the family he left behind when the startling discovery of a body is made at a country pub. With Ray’s identification found with the body, Ray’s sister Ursula believes after years of searching for her brother, this might be the closure she is looking for. However, once Ursula collects Ray’s belongings she is compelled to follow his pathway, leading her to understand his final fate.

Outback based mystery novels with plenty of family politics are definitely the sort of books I gravitate towards. There seems to be a welcome addition of a number of books of this nature recently and is good to see Australian publishers getting on board. The Far-Back Country is a book that I appreciated for many reasons; the compelling narrative, intriguing mystery, family dynamics, extreme sense of place, sophisticated prose and most importantly, for my introduction to a new author.

The narrative base that defines The Far-Back Country is like a map of the outback. It is roving, not always linear, where segments intersect and overlap. It is an astute way to structure a novel and this format contributes to the mystery, as well as deviating atmosphere of the book. Alternating between time frame and character voices contributes to the overall enigma over the central question of Ray’s whereabouts/final fate. The reader is propelled to keep progressing with this novel as ultimately they want Ray and Ursula to reconnect. For me, this was quite the case with my experience of The Far-Back Country.

Lyons takes a commanding approach to her setting. Time and place seem to stand still within the pages of The Far-Back Country. Reading through the evocative pages of The Far-Back Country made me realise this is the closest I am going to get to fully appreciating and experiencing the harsh, but beautiful world of outback Australia. The passages relaying the inhospitable land that Ray finds himself drifting through and Ursula’s efforts in retracing her brother’s footsteps is simply spine tingling.

Characters and the dynamics that play out between the protagonists of The Far-Back Country are handled with precision by Kate Lyons. Ray is outlined with a strong brush of understanding, but also an aloofness that left me questioning his character many time over. Ray’s family, namely his sisters and his mother are also sketched well by Lyons. Ray’s cruel father is looming presence on the pages of this novel. Understanding the father figure of this tale gives us a greater sense of the importance of identity and early family interactions in shaping the person we become in future years. This is the resounding message that I took away from The Far-Back Country.

With themes of identity, belonging, loss, blame, disappointment, resentment and hope defining The Far-Back Country, this book places a strong emphasis on family disconnection. Conclusively, The Far-Back Country is literary based outback fiction title, with strong elements of intrigue and high family drama that I recommend with confidence.

*I wish to thank Allen & Unwin for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.

The Far-Back Country, is book #86 of the Australian Women Writers Challenge

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ray McCullough was only fourteen years old when he ran away from home after experiencing a violent argument with his dad, Jim McCullough. Ray left behind his mother, Delly and his sisters Ursula and Tilda.

Ray believes he suffers a violent streak, which stems from his younger years. Now in his forties, Ray works as a cook and labourer in the remote outback where he attempts to escape his childhood memories.

When Ray finds out about a death in his family knows he should get in contact, but the thought of revisiting his past is the last thing he wants to do.

The Far Back Country is a beautiful and compelling tale of survival and family. When I began this book I thought I wasn't going to enjoy it, but how wrong was I as I truly enjoyed it. Well worth the read. Recommended.

With thanks to the publishers for my uncorrected proof copy to read and review.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There was dusk, a ruffled blue moment when earth released its grip on the heat. There was sunrise, that same heat blooming from a low spine of hills. There were stars wheeling frozen round the tiny hinge of his firelight, the only certain thing. Even the hardest hottest day out here had the ghost of a curve to it, when held against another, in the long glitter of a week.”

The Far-Back Country is the third novel by Australian author, Kate Lyons. In December 2006, Ray McCullough is at the end of a fencing job when he learns that Delly has died. It’s almost Christmas when he heads for Twenty Bends, to the family he has not seen for almost thirty years, but picking up young Mick Jones along the road means a detour to Bourke. What he finds there is disturbing, but at his family’s old homestead, he’s in for even more of a shock.

Ursula McCullough has had to cope with her mother, Delly’s death and getting her elderly, fractious father resituated, while looking after her unstable younger sister, Tilda. Returning to her childhood home once again has Ray filling her thoughts and, despite the hassles it caused, the parade of desperates trying to cash in on her hopes, she’s not sorry she placed the newspaper ad. Then she gets a call from a hospital in western NSW, asking her to confirm that the recently deceased man they have there is her brother. Of course, she goes.

The two narratives cover events in Ray and Ursula’s present-day lives, but those events draw forth memories of earlier times, of what happened back when Ray was fourteen, and the life that they have each led from then on. Echoes from one narrative sound in the other; there are common threads, though certain memories of past occurrences are perhaps dismissed as aberrations of an erratic mental state. Tilda ought not to be underestimated...

For the astute reader, the family secret will be obvious well before it is revealed about a third in, but this does not diminish the pure pleasure of the journey through these marvellous characters’ lives. It pays to notice the small details, because these are the clues that ultimately reveal the what and who and most importantly, the why. It is virtually impossible not to want these two characters to find one another after what they have endured.

Lyons easily evokes the place and time of her settings. The narratives are beautifully woven together, and all of it is wrapped in exquisite descriptive prose. The emotions are almost palpable: anger and frustration, heartache, loneliness, sadness, grief and longing, but also love and hope. And Lyons includes several blackly funny moments for the reader’s enjoyment. This is a story that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned, and it ends with a feeling of hopeful anticipation. An exceptional read.
This unbiased review from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen & Unwin.

[Natty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this piece of fiction .. Plain and simple.
The descriptive writing of Kate Lyons is so vivid, beautifully detailed although I've never been to the outback of Australia, I felt like I was there experiencing it all.

I loved Ray as a character he was easily relatable to me or maybe I easily liked him, and the pace of how things were revealed kept me engaged the whole way.. The only thing stopping me from making it a 5 star read was the ending.. It wasn't disappointing or anything but it did leave me wanting more...

Thank you to Allen and Unwin for my free review copy, I have discovered a new author that I will look forward to reading more in future from her. Great book Kate Lyons I'm ready for the next one?! ;)

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had a few attempts to get into this book. The descriptions of some of the harsh countryside in some areas of Australia and the equally harsh and hard peoples that live there and sometimes in small non descript towns that attract drop outs are all in this read. The author has the timeline of 6 months December 2006 and June 2007, however there is so much going on within this complex read that the time involved seems so much longer. The story is all over the place. Perhaps identifying with months/towns instead of chapters a reader would have a better idea of unfolding events. The story identifies with two main characters, Ray and Ursula estranged from a dysfunctional family and due to each other’s circumstances contact has been lost. A vagrant is found dead in a flea bitten hotel and it is assumed through items of clothing that the deceased is Ray. Urs is looking for Ray with sister Tilda who appears to be schizophrenic. Born with some dysfunction her condition has been exacipated due to family violence is an unnecessary character and could have been left out of the story by virtue of having to add another character to look after Tilda when Urs wanting to track down Ray alone (after a serious of deductions realises the dead man is not Ray) abandons her on the train so she is left to return home by herself to Harry who lives with Urs and Tilda and is another oddity. Ray has so many mental health issues that only with moving around from job to job is he able to deal with the ghosts of the past. Ursula has taken on the care of Tilda after the mother’s death which is the catalyst to push harder to find Ray. With the family property now sold, the father with dementia in a home, the secret that has bound the members of this family can now be exposed.

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful evocation of all the extremes of the outback, overlaid with the dramas of trying to reconcile a difficult family life. For me the outback scenes were every bit as good as those of Tim Winton. They capture the desolate, deserted spaces but also bring to life the nature that lurks there; the sparse trees and the few animals, the strange noises in the dark.

This is a book primarily about family. Ray ran away from home as a teenager, leaving behind two older sisters, Tilda and Ursula, and a father who was always hard on him. Now twenty-seven years later Ursula is looking for Ray. Trying to make up for lost time, to fill in the gaps.

Ray has lived a harsh life since running away from home, convinced that his father’s violent streak lives in him as well. There is a brilliant description of the itinerant life he leads, moving from place to place working a a chef, a fencer or a labourer. “Breakfast, smoko, dinner, smoko. Tea, a beer then bed. Between these, long stretches of hot silence broken only by the shrill of the oven timer, the tick of the cooling roof. At night, the radio and his book of poems. In this way he parcelled time into pockets of ordinary meaning, gave himself a reason to move from one moment to the next.”

For much of the book we alternate between the lives of Ray and Ursula, as Ray continues to lead his itinerant life and Ursula pursues him, just slightly behind, almost within reach. The closer they get, the more the reader wills them to finally meet, to resolve many of those unspoken things from their past lives. There are secrets that are slow to emerge, unspoken for so long. Early on there is a body, and in the pockets are some of Ray’s papers, a few sparse possessions. But when Ursula comes, she cannot reconcile the small clothes and tiny shoes with the strapping lad who ran away. She looks for clues in what remains, and when finally she gets to see the body, she already knows it will not be Ray.

There are quiet moments of reflection, when Ray and Ursula are searching, reaching back to the memories of a long lost childhood. Most of all this is a book of family memories. “Old stories, borrowed stories, tall tales, urban myths, pub furphies, wild rumours gleaned from tabloid newspapers, all weaved seamlessly into the family history, spawning new and exotic forms of truth.” Having run away from home so young, Ray is plagued by uncertainty about what he heard from his father. “After a while, you stopped asking and he stopped telling , and it was as if he’d never been Sydney. As if those stories and the stories you’d told yourself about those stories had never happened.”

A brilliantly written novel, harsh and dry as the outback drought, but rich too with the real lives of people that have been made to struggle but are climbing out of the other side to what may become a better place.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Far-Back Country' by Kate Lyons was an engrossing read about a dysfunctional family and the search for truth: a woman (Ursula) searches the Australian outback for Ray who left the family home when he was 14 years old, around 25 years ago. The story is structured so in one chapter we read about Ursula and her present life and search, another chapter we follow Ray where he makes a living as an itinerant cook and farm worker, though never staying in one place too long, then we learn of Ursula's past, then discover why Ray ran away and is still running. The gradual unravelling of secrets keeps you reading. The Australian landscape is as much a character as the people. Lyons does a superb job of evoking the vast countryside in all its grandeur and ghastliness, and vividly and heartbreakingly describes the remote towns and people who struggle to survive against what nature throws up at them. It took me a chapter or two to sink into Lyon's narrative style; she relishes the staccato sentence peppered with two or three evocative adjectives, but some phrases left me wondering (for instance I wasn't sure what she meant by 'the caramel thrum of tyres'). Two characters, Tilda and Harry, seemed to me a bit superfluous. I give this three stars as by the end I was depressed and drained of any joy. I am also getting tired of reading about dysfunctional families where violence and abuse are the norm. And the ending seemed a cop-out after 374 pages. Not sure why she decided to end it this way.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into the rhythm of this book and appreciate the style of writing that made it quite an effort to read. It's a great story though, with rich descriptions of characters and places in isolated parts of Australia. The story is a sad family drama of estranged people searching for each other in deprived and difficult circumstances. The events are depressing, violent and ugly. Everything felt dry and desperate, like the characters themselves and nobody really had a happy outcome.
Despite all of this, I found it a rewarding and moving read. The desperate search of a woman to discover what happened to her brother and the reasons why he wanted to escape and stay hidden are intriguing and kept me ploughing through the story to find out if it would come together.
If you like to feel, smell and suffer the deprivations of life in the isolated parts of Australia, then this is your book. If you like a rollicking and entertaining thriller, then forget it.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book hard to get into at the start, the lyrical cadence (almost poetry) and the very descriptive writing meant I hard to really concentrate when reading this book. But once I got used to the rhythm I started to really get into the story, and the way it unfolds kept me interested almost until the very end. I found it just petered out a bit at the end, but for all the effort of reading it I really did enjoy this book.

[Noelene · Rating 4 out of 5]

A literary novel that tells the story of two family members trying to reconnect. The author does an excellent job of describing the harshness of the Australian outback and the effects on people and their relationships.

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although l found this book hard to get into due to the style of writing it eventually sucked me in and couldn’t wait to see what would happen. Would have liked to see Ray and Ursula connect at the end but it was a nice ending.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this, it is bleak and depressing, although beautifully written. I was in the wrong mood to plough through it, and didn't enjoy the characters much, so I gave up on it. The quality of the writing shines though, so I might try it when in a more resilient mood.

[Jyv · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like the writing style, so really could not get into it at all.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read about the way family relationships develop

[Craig and Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lWwDkgF...

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable but different.