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Taking Tom Murray Home
The winner of the inaugural Banjo Prize, Taking Tom Murray Home is a funny, moving, bittersweet Australian story of fires, families and the restorative power of community.
Bankrupt dairy farmer Tom Murray decides he'd rather sell off his herd and burn down his own house than hand them over to the bank. But something goes tragically wrong, and Tom dies in the blaze. His wife, Dawn, doesn't want him to have died for nothing and decides to hold a funeral procession for Tom as a protest, driving 350km from Yardley in country Victoria to bury him in Melbourne where he was born. To make a bigger impact she agrees with some neighbours to put his coffin on a horse and cart and take it slow - real slow.
But on the night of their departure, someone burns down the local bank. And as the motley funeral procession passes through Victoria, there are more mysterious arson attacks. Dawn has five days to get to Melbourne. Five days, five more towns, and a state ready to explode in flames...
Told with a laconic, deadpan wit, Taking Tom Murray Home is a timely, thought-provoking, heart-warming, quintessentially Australian story like no other. It's a novel about grief, pain, anger and loss, yes, but it's also about hope - and how community, friends and love trump pain and anger, every time.
Bankrupt dairy farmer Tom Murray decides he'd rather sell off his herd and burn down his own house than hand them over to the bank. But something goes tragically wrong, and Tom dies in the blaze. His wife, Dawn, doesn't want him to have died for nothing and decides to hold a funeral procession for Tom as a protest, driving 350km from Yardley in country Victoria to bury him in Melbourne where he was born. To make a bigger impact she agrees with some neighbours to put his coffin on a horse and cart and take it slow - real slow.
But on the night of their departure, someone burns down the local bank. And as the motley funeral procession passes through Victoria, there are more mysterious arson attacks. Dawn has five days to get to Melbourne. Five days, five more towns, and a state ready to explode in flames...
Told with a laconic, deadpan wit, Taking Tom Murray Home is a timely, thought-provoking, heart-warming, quintessentially Australian story like no other. It's a novel about grief, pain, anger and loss, yes, but it's also about hope - and how community, friends and love trump pain and anger, every time.
293 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2019
55 people are currently reading
395 people want to read
About the author
Tim Slee
8 books96 followersPRE-ORDER NOW: 'AGGRESSOR - A page turning technothriller from FX Holden (The Aggressor Series Book 1)
Tim Slee's first success was as winner of the Allen & Unwin INK short fiction prize. In 2016 he started independently publishing long fiction, and was the winner in Feb 2017 of the Grand Prize in the US Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize in Fiction. In 2018 he received the Banjo Prize for unpublished Australian fiction, and his manuscript TAKING TOM MURRAY HOME was published in August 2019 by HarperCollins Australia. It was released by HarperCollins UK in February 2022 and with HarperCollins USA in July 2022.
He writes future fiction under the pen name FX Holden and has been awarded two US Publishers' Weekly Stars (the Michelin Star of publishing) and the US Readers' Favorite award for Best Political Thriller in both 2019 and 2021!
The hard sci-fi Coruscant Series by FX Holden is also available on AMAZON.
Tim Slee's first success was as winner of the Allen & Unwin INK short fiction prize. In 2016 he started independently publishing long fiction, and was the winner in Feb 2017 of the Grand Prize in the US Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize in Fiction. In 2018 he received the Banjo Prize for unpublished Australian fiction, and his manuscript TAKING TOM MURRAY HOME was published in August 2019 by HarperCollins Australia. It was released by HarperCollins UK in February 2022 and with HarperCollins USA in July 2022.
He writes future fiction under the pen name FX Holden and has been awarded two US Publishers' Weekly Stars (the Michelin Star of publishing) and the US Readers' Favorite award for Best Political Thriller in both 2019 and 2021!
The hard sci-fi Coruscant Series by FX Holden is also available on AMAZON.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
September 4, 2019
Taking Tom Murray home is a delightful book. It's a very Australian story focusing on the plight of dairy farmers who are being forced out of business by aggressive supermarket chains who have decided that cheap milk is what the public wants, even if it means dairy farmers and their families will lose their livelihoods. Tom Murray is one such farmer in rural Victoria. Unable to pay his bank loan, he decides to burn down his house instead of letting the bank take it. Unfortunately things go wrong and Tom loses his life in the fire. His widow Dawn, together with his twin children and friends, decides to stage a protest, taking his coffin by horse and cart on a five day trek to Melbourne where he can be buried close to his family.
Along the way, the protest takes on a life of its own with farmers and those affected by the economy, the drought and climate change joining the procession and making headlines in the local and national press, especially when someone starts torching banks and supermarkets along the route.
Narrated by Tom's twelve year old son Jack, the novel will appeal to teenagers as well as a wider audience. Jack is a typical country boy full of mischief, questions and ideas. Along with his sister Jenny, they are able to talk freely to most of the people involved in the funeral procession and snoop in areas and listen in on conversations where no one pays them much attention. The twins have a congenital insensitivity to pain which makes their lives (and Dawn's) difficult and also makes it difficult for them to express grief, but it also makes them very close, although with a typical brother-sister competitiveness. It is Jenny's love of social media that helps get the word out about the procession and making #Burn a call for social justice for the people suffering from the decisions of politicians and big business.
Although starting with a tragic death and characters who are farmers that have been doing it tough, the novel is uplifting and filled with humour and good natured banter. Dawn is a true country battler who bravely takes on the police, the media and anyone who tries to stop the protest. She is well supported by Karsi, the local cop who takes leave to go with them, Coach Don, a farmer and local football coach, Pop, a legless war veteran and John Garrett who provides his milk cart for transporting Tom's coffin and his wonderful Clydesdale Danny Boy to pull it. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the route to Melbourne, the very Australian landscape and the small country towns, which anyone who has been to this area of Victoria will recognise with fondness. Tom had Aboriginal heritage and I liked that this was woven into the story with inclusion of indigenous characters and recognition of the ancestral owners of the land they were traveling on, as well as a smoking ceremony in Melbourne.
Along the way, the protest takes on a life of its own with farmers and those affected by the economy, the drought and climate change joining the procession and making headlines in the local and national press, especially when someone starts torching banks and supermarkets along the route.
Narrated by Tom's twelve year old son Jack, the novel will appeal to teenagers as well as a wider audience. Jack is a typical country boy full of mischief, questions and ideas. Along with his sister Jenny, they are able to talk freely to most of the people involved in the funeral procession and snoop in areas and listen in on conversations where no one pays them much attention. The twins have a congenital insensitivity to pain which makes their lives (and Dawn's) difficult and also makes it difficult for them to express grief, but it also makes them very close, although with a typical brother-sister competitiveness. It is Jenny's love of social media that helps get the word out about the procession and making #Burn a call for social justice for the people suffering from the decisions of politicians and big business.
Although starting with a tragic death and characters who are farmers that have been doing it tough, the novel is uplifting and filled with humour and good natured banter. Dawn is a true country battler who bravely takes on the police, the media and anyone who tries to stop the protest. She is well supported by Karsi, the local cop who takes leave to go with them, Coach Don, a farmer and local football coach, Pop, a legless war veteran and John Garrett who provides his milk cart for transporting Tom's coffin and his wonderful Clydesdale Danny Boy to pull it. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the route to Melbourne, the very Australian landscape and the small country towns, which anyone who has been to this area of Victoria will recognise with fondness. Tom had Aboriginal heritage and I liked that this was woven into the story with inclusion of indigenous characters and recognition of the ancestral owners of the land they were traveling on, as well as a smoking ceremony in Melbourne.
November 7, 2019
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Taking Tom Murray Home has a true Australian feel. The small farming community of Yardley bands together after Tom Murray is accidentally killed whilst burning down his own home. This was Tom’s act of defiance when the bank threatened to foreclose on his mortgage.
Narrated through 13 year old Jack Murray the story is heart-felt as Jack tries to understand his father’s death in his own way. We quite often get jack’s somewhat naive look on events.
Dawn Murray decides to pack Tom’s coffin on a milk cart drawn by a draft horse and take the trip to Melbourne, a journey of six days, where he will be buried. They garner much support along the way and with the inclusion of media and police Dawn has to remind everyone this is a funeral procession not a protest.
I quite enjoyed this story about people coming together to support each other but I’m not sure they achieved much. Told through the eyes of a thirteen year old the story is slow going and there isn’t much description of the surrounds. The inclusion of the condition of Analgesia was well plotted and believable. I don’t think I’ve come across this in a book before
This review first appeared on Beauty & Lace here
Taking Tom Murray Home has a true Australian feel. The small farming community of Yardley bands together after Tom Murray is accidentally killed whilst burning down his own home. This was Tom’s act of defiance when the bank threatened to foreclose on his mortgage.
Narrated through 13 year old Jack Murray the story is heart-felt as Jack tries to understand his father’s death in his own way. We quite often get jack’s somewhat naive look on events.
Dawn Murray decides to pack Tom’s coffin on a milk cart drawn by a draft horse and take the trip to Melbourne, a journey of six days, where he will be buried. They garner much support along the way and with the inclusion of media and police Dawn has to remind everyone this is a funeral procession not a protest.
I quite enjoyed this story about people coming together to support each other but I’m not sure they achieved much. Told through the eyes of a thirteen year old the story is slow going and there isn’t much description of the surrounds. The inclusion of the condition of Analgesia was well plotted and believable. I don’t think I’ve come across this in a book before
This review first appeared on Beauty & Lace here
April 27, 2020
Taking Tom Murray Home is the debut novel by prize-winning Australian author, Tim Slee. Dairy farmer, Tom Murray had reached the end of his tether. The supermarkets had screwed down the price of milk so much that, despite all their hard work, the farm he ran with Dawn, Lazy Bones Dairy had become unviable. The bank wanted to take the house. Tom wasn’t going to allow that. They cleared out their belongings and, Dawn and the kids safely away, Tom set the place on fire.
But things didn’t quite go to plan: Tom didn’t make it out. Now Dawn is a widow and the twins, Jack and Jenny are fatherless. And they’re homeless. But Yardley being the typical Victorian country town, everyone pitches in to help. And, prompted by farmer/footie coach, Don Aloisi, Dawn decides that Tom’s death will not be in vain.
Dawn feels Tom should be buried in Carlton, where he was from, but the funeral procession will be a statement: something that will give Maximum Exposure to the plight of dairy farmers. John Garrett offers his Clydesdale, Danny Boy, and his milk cart for transporting the coffin in a funeral procession that rapidly becomes a days-long convoy. Townspeople tag along; coverage on social media, and later by mainstream media, ensures that people along the route cheer them on.
But as they travel, it seems someone is taking Direct Action: banks and supermarkets in the towns they travel through are being fire-bombed. Geraldine from the Geelong Advertiser smells a good story and the core group is wary, but she is welcomed when she reveals her father and brother are dairy farmers. From Portland, Karsi (Senior Sergeant Hussein Karsioglu) tries to maintain a balance between keeping order and helping the cause.
Jack tries in earnest to convince Karsi that his father had been murdered by the bank man, while Jenny is not even convinced her father is dead. But as they proceed, Jack’s conversations with accompanying townsfolk lead him to a quite different theory about what has been happening. Jenny, meanwhile, busies herself with a Go Fund Me page for funeral costs.
What a charming tale Slee gives the reader. The townspeople are a little quirky yet entirely believable, familiar in any country town, full of care and support for each other. Jack and Jenny have a special place in the hearts of the community, with their strange, shared condition, Dorotea’s Analgesia. The dialogue is a delight, and many of the characters offer wise words as well as dry humour. It’s difficult not to chuckle and even laugh out loud at their antics.
There’s very much a Jasper Jones/Craig Silvey feel to Jack’s account; his voice is genuine and guileless. The Bolinda audio version is brilliantly read by Stig Wemyss, who bestows on this tale the same wonderful expressiveness and vocal quality that he gives his narration of Boy Swallows Universe; his voice is an absolute pleasure to listen to. Funny, topical and moving, this is a truly entertaining read.
But things didn’t quite go to plan: Tom didn’t make it out. Now Dawn is a widow and the twins, Jack and Jenny are fatherless. And they’re homeless. But Yardley being the typical Victorian country town, everyone pitches in to help. And, prompted by farmer/footie coach, Don Aloisi, Dawn decides that Tom’s death will not be in vain.
Dawn feels Tom should be buried in Carlton, where he was from, but the funeral procession will be a statement: something that will give Maximum Exposure to the plight of dairy farmers. John Garrett offers his Clydesdale, Danny Boy, and his milk cart for transporting the coffin in a funeral procession that rapidly becomes a days-long convoy. Townspeople tag along; coverage on social media, and later by mainstream media, ensures that people along the route cheer them on.
But as they travel, it seems someone is taking Direct Action: banks and supermarkets in the towns they travel through are being fire-bombed. Geraldine from the Geelong Advertiser smells a good story and the core group is wary, but she is welcomed when she reveals her father and brother are dairy farmers. From Portland, Karsi (Senior Sergeant Hussein Karsioglu) tries to maintain a balance between keeping order and helping the cause.
Jack tries in earnest to convince Karsi that his father had been murdered by the bank man, while Jenny is not even convinced her father is dead. But as they proceed, Jack’s conversations with accompanying townsfolk lead him to a quite different theory about what has been happening. Jenny, meanwhile, busies herself with a Go Fund Me page for funeral costs.
What a charming tale Slee gives the reader. The townspeople are a little quirky yet entirely believable, familiar in any country town, full of care and support for each other. Jack and Jenny have a special place in the hearts of the community, with their strange, shared condition, Dorotea’s Analgesia. The dialogue is a delight, and many of the characters offer wise words as well as dry humour. It’s difficult not to chuckle and even laugh out loud at their antics.
There’s very much a Jasper Jones/Craig Silvey feel to Jack’s account; his voice is genuine and guileless. The Bolinda audio version is brilliantly read by Stig Wemyss, who bestows on this tale the same wonderful expressiveness and vocal quality that he gives his narration of Boy Swallows Universe; his voice is an absolute pleasure to listen to. Funny, topical and moving, this is a truly entertaining read.
October 17, 2019
Hi, let's call this 'author notes' instead of a review coz clearly it isn't!
Taking Tom Murray Home started as some scrawled notes that came out of a conversation around a BBQ at a campground on the Great Ocean Road a few years ago. I was making dinner when a couple of blokes joined to share the BBQ and we got talking - it turned out they had just walked off their dairy farm after going bust (it was early in the milk wars). The farm had been in the family 40 odd years and the thing that stuck with me was they said they couldn't get a buyer for their herd, so they had to sell them for slaughter. Knowing how much farmers care for their animals, I could only imagine what a punch in the guts that must have been. I kept the notes, but didn't move ahead with the story at that point because I'm not a sad story kind of writer.
A few years ticked by, Aust banks were making headlines for all the wrong reasons and I read a story in a UK paper about a guy whose house was being repossessed by his bank but instead of just handing over the keys, he decided to burn it to the ground. The fire brigade found him sitting in his front yard playing guitar and having a BBQ. (He eventually got 5 years for arson...)
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-sou...
I guess it was the BBQ angle that triggered my memory of the conversation with the two dairy farmers as I suddenly thought, hmm, what if that family hadn't just walked off their farm, what if they burned it to the ground? And would there be a way to do it without getting arrested, and what would happen if something went wrong, and what if and what if ...
And that train of thought became Taking Tom Murray Home!
I banged out a few chapters and around that time, March 2018, I saw that HarperCollins had announced the Banjo Prize, for unpublished Australian fiction. But by then, the entry deadline was only a couple of months away! I spent every night and every weekend for the next couple of months tidying up the manuscript for submission and sent it in on the last possible day.
I've been playing with writing as a serious pursuit since about 2016 and independently published a few manuscripts (giving the proceeds to charity). The decision to go the Indie route was suggested by a publishing friend when I was moaning one day about not getting any traction with my pitch letters to agents and publishers. "Why don't you just publish on Amazon?" she said. "It's easy enough and if your stuff is any good, it will sell." So I followed her advice, it was easy and it did sell!
This is something I highly recommend to any budding author because a story that never leaves your laptop will never find a reader and agents and publishers drown in submissions so the fact yours doesn't make it out of their 'slush pile' does not mean there isn't an audience for your work! I use the indie platform to experiment with different genres (crime, sci-fi, fantasy) and I've now sold about 10,000 copies of my different independently published manuscripts, got great critical feedback on my work to help improve it, and even won a couple of prizes including the US Publishers Weekly BookLife Grand prize, and now of course, the Banjo.
Working with a major publisher like HarperCollins and its great team of editors was a buzz and it was such fun to spend time with people so passionate about books and reading. They took the book to another level and the end result was very much a team effort.
Is there another book in the works? Actually, the process of finalising Taking Tom Murray Home took nearly a year, which left plenty of time for exploring new story ideas, so I wrote two new draft manuscripts and one short treatment and hopefully one of these will see the light of day soon!
In the meantime, if you'd like to try any of my earlier writing just check out my author page on Goodreads for (now free) ebooks:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Or, if you like a big fat Tom Clancy style thriller, you can grab a copy of my latest charity fundraising project 'BERING STRAIT' which I publish under the pen name FX HOLDEN:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...
All the best - TJ
Taking Tom Murray Home started as some scrawled notes that came out of a conversation around a BBQ at a campground on the Great Ocean Road a few years ago. I was making dinner when a couple of blokes joined to share the BBQ and we got talking - it turned out they had just walked off their dairy farm after going bust (it was early in the milk wars). The farm had been in the family 40 odd years and the thing that stuck with me was they said they couldn't get a buyer for their herd, so they had to sell them for slaughter. Knowing how much farmers care for their animals, I could only imagine what a punch in the guts that must have been. I kept the notes, but didn't move ahead with the story at that point because I'm not a sad story kind of writer.
A few years ticked by, Aust banks were making headlines for all the wrong reasons and I read a story in a UK paper about a guy whose house was being repossessed by his bank but instead of just handing over the keys, he decided to burn it to the ground. The fire brigade found him sitting in his front yard playing guitar and having a BBQ. (He eventually got 5 years for arson...)
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-sou...
I guess it was the BBQ angle that triggered my memory of the conversation with the two dairy farmers as I suddenly thought, hmm, what if that family hadn't just walked off their farm, what if they burned it to the ground? And would there be a way to do it without getting arrested, and what would happen if something went wrong, and what if and what if ...
And that train of thought became Taking Tom Murray Home!
I banged out a few chapters and around that time, March 2018, I saw that HarperCollins had announced the Banjo Prize, for unpublished Australian fiction. But by then, the entry deadline was only a couple of months away! I spent every night and every weekend for the next couple of months tidying up the manuscript for submission and sent it in on the last possible day.
I've been playing with writing as a serious pursuit since about 2016 and independently published a few manuscripts (giving the proceeds to charity). The decision to go the Indie route was suggested by a publishing friend when I was moaning one day about not getting any traction with my pitch letters to agents and publishers. "Why don't you just publish on Amazon?" she said. "It's easy enough and if your stuff is any good, it will sell." So I followed her advice, it was easy and it did sell!
This is something I highly recommend to any budding author because a story that never leaves your laptop will never find a reader and agents and publishers drown in submissions so the fact yours doesn't make it out of their 'slush pile' does not mean there isn't an audience for your work! I use the indie platform to experiment with different genres (crime, sci-fi, fantasy) and I've now sold about 10,000 copies of my different independently published manuscripts, got great critical feedback on my work to help improve it, and even won a couple of prizes including the US Publishers Weekly BookLife Grand prize, and now of course, the Banjo.
Working with a major publisher like HarperCollins and its great team of editors was a buzz and it was such fun to spend time with people so passionate about books and reading. They took the book to another level and the end result was very much a team effort.
Is there another book in the works? Actually, the process of finalising Taking Tom Murray Home took nearly a year, which left plenty of time for exploring new story ideas, so I wrote two new draft manuscripts and one short treatment and hopefully one of these will see the light of day soon!
In the meantime, if you'd like to try any of my earlier writing just check out my author page on Goodreads for (now free) ebooks:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Or, if you like a big fat Tom Clancy style thriller, you can grab a copy of my latest charity fundraising project 'BERING STRAIT' which I publish under the pen name FX HOLDEN:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...
All the best - TJ
March 29, 2020
The focus of the story is a funeral procession to bury Tom Murray. Tom was a dairy farmer who on the cusp of losing his farm to the banks due to debt, he decides to burn down the house rather than hand it over. This leaves his wife, Dawn and children, Jack and Jenny homeless. They decide to take Tom's coffin to Melbourne for burial and make a point about the helplessness of farmers dealing with supermarket chains and big banks.
This alone was a plot that made for a good story, however it also incorporated the fact that the twins had a rare condition called Dorotea's Analgesia which to be distracted rather than added to the plight of the family. I found it very difficult to connect with the characters and I am not sure why, Dawn in particular felt very distant and unknowable.
An enjoyable and worthy story.
Thank you Tim Slee for the digital book that I won through a Goodreads competition.
This alone was a plot that made for a good story, however it also incorporated the fact that the twins had a rare condition called Dorotea's Analgesia which to be distracted rather than added to the plight of the family. I found it very difficult to connect with the characters and I am not sure why, Dawn in particular felt very distant and unknowable.
An enjoyable and worthy story.
Thank you Tim Slee for the digital book that I won through a Goodreads competition.
August 26, 2020
What a little gem this book is. It had me hooked from the start.
July 25, 2019
Taking Tom Murray Home is about a broke dairy farmer in country Victoria who burns down his house rather than give it to the bank, but accidentally dies in the fire. His wife then decides they’ll do a week long funeral procession to Melbourne that also serves as a protest against the low milk prices that have led to so many dairy famers being in similar dire financial circumstances, but told with good old Aussie wit and dry humour.
For Australians, this a really timely and thought-provoking read. Low milk prices have been a hot topic for a while, and this book makes you think of the actual dairy farmers who are suffering and can no longer support their families. This book also won the 2018 Banjo Prize (which Harper Collins Australia holds to find the next great Australian storyteller).
The book feels very quintessentially Australian. It refers to Aussie issues and is full of Aussie slang and dry wit. From that point of view, it felt very relatable for me and I enjoyed the loveable characters and their ‘country’ language. However, the writing is a stream of consciousness style, of which I’m not a huge fan, and the narrator is a 13 year old boy, which resulted in parts of the writing feeling immature and I couldn’t connect to the narrator as much as I would have liked. The beginning of the book also moved quite slowly, with the plot only becoming more interesting in the last half of the book.
Overall, although I didn’t love the writing style, I loved that it was pushing an important topic that needs to be talked about more in Australia. If you like thought-provoking reads and enjoy slower family-style sagas, you should think about picking this one up!
For Australians, this a really timely and thought-provoking read. Low milk prices have been a hot topic for a while, and this book makes you think of the actual dairy farmers who are suffering and can no longer support their families. This book also won the 2018 Banjo Prize (which Harper Collins Australia holds to find the next great Australian storyteller).
The book feels very quintessentially Australian. It refers to Aussie issues and is full of Aussie slang and dry wit. From that point of view, it felt very relatable for me and I enjoyed the loveable characters and their ‘country’ language. However, the writing is a stream of consciousness style, of which I’m not a huge fan, and the narrator is a 13 year old boy, which resulted in parts of the writing feeling immature and I couldn’t connect to the narrator as much as I would have liked. The beginning of the book also moved quite slowly, with the plot only becoming more interesting in the last half of the book.
Overall, although I didn’t love the writing style, I loved that it was pushing an important topic that needs to be talked about more in Australia. If you like thought-provoking reads and enjoy slower family-style sagas, you should think about picking this one up!
July 21, 2020
This is the story which will touch a chord with any Australian who has an understanding of and sympathy for the difficulty of farming, especially during a drought, and especially when $1/litre milk has been such a catastrophe for the farmers (which I've never bought, myself, just quietly).
Told through the eyes of an observant young boy who has a frank grasp of reality, the tale follows a convoy of Tom's wife (farmers' wives aren't pushovers!), her children (including the narrator, Jack), and small-townsfolk who support the 'cause' as she takes Tom's body on a slow trip to Melbourne both in order to bury him with his family, and to bring attention to the plight of farmers.
The "grammatical errors" took a chapter or two to get used to, but this is part of the characterisation of Jack in the way he expresses his observations, and overall I found the 'voice' very believable and that it enhanced the story.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to all Australians, and those in other countries who connect with small-town life. Victorians in particular may enjoy the references to the several towns the convoy visits on their trek to Melbourne.
Told through the eyes of an observant young boy who has a frank grasp of reality, the tale follows a convoy of Tom's wife (farmers' wives aren't pushovers!), her children (including the narrator, Jack), and small-townsfolk who support the 'cause' as she takes Tom's body on a slow trip to Melbourne both in order to bury him with his family, and to bring attention to the plight of farmers.
The "grammatical errors" took a chapter or two to get used to, but this is part of the characterisation of Jack in the way he expresses his observations, and overall I found the 'voice' very believable and that it enhanced the story.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to all Australians, and those in other countries who connect with small-town life. Victorians in particular may enjoy the references to the several towns the convoy visits on their trek to Melbourne.
March 25, 2019
'Mum lit the spark with Dad's funeral Jenny turned it into a wildfire. A wildfire that spread from bank to bank, State to State, and it's burning still.'
This is an absolute delight to read, and a great Australian uplit novel. I mean, sure, the kid protagonist's dad dies and the kid is unable to process these emotions, but...it ends on a good note, trust me.
What can't this book do? It has bone dry humour and brilliant Australian wit. It weaves a moving personal story around a much larger and grander vision. It creates unique characters that will absolutely capture your heart. It never gets ahead of itself and is humble in the writing. And somehow it combines bush poetry recitals with Instagram social media campaigns. Genius, I tell you.
I think a lot of people will concentrate on the story of the twins and the fact they suffer from Dorotea's Analgesia, but for me it was about Dawn the widow of Tom Murray. She's the heart and driver of everything that happens. It's funny because while I read this book the Gilet Jaunes movement was unfolding in France. Now, I would expect that of France, but Tim Slee paints an Australia on edge, a tinderbox of social unrest that is ready to burst into flame and burn the whole system down. That is probably how many of us feel. Drought, corrupt banks, ridiculous housing affordability. Sometimes the little guy has just had enough. And that's what this book is all about and I know it will get a lot of people talking.
'It's not good versus evil anymore, it's just us versus them. Tom saw that. That's why he left the army.'
This is an absolute delight to read, and a great Australian uplit novel. I mean, sure, the kid protagonist's dad dies and the kid is unable to process these emotions, but...it ends on a good note, trust me.
What can't this book do? It has bone dry humour and brilliant Australian wit. It weaves a moving personal story around a much larger and grander vision. It creates unique characters that will absolutely capture your heart. It never gets ahead of itself and is humble in the writing. And somehow it combines bush poetry recitals with Instagram social media campaigns. Genius, I tell you.
I think a lot of people will concentrate on the story of the twins and the fact they suffer from Dorotea's Analgesia, but for me it was about Dawn the widow of Tom Murray. She's the heart and driver of everything that happens. It's funny because while I read this book the Gilet Jaunes movement was unfolding in France. Now, I would expect that of France, but Tim Slee paints an Australia on edge, a tinderbox of social unrest that is ready to burst into flame and burn the whole system down. That is probably how many of us feel. Drought, corrupt banks, ridiculous housing affordability. Sometimes the little guy has just had enough. And that's what this book is all about and I know it will get a lot of people talking.
'It's not good versus evil anymore, it's just us versus them. Tom saw that. That's why he left the army.'
November 3, 2019
What a read!!! Tin Slee captured the essence of country Australia in this book. One family's struggle with drought, rising costs and the depth of anguish many farmers are facing today in Australia. How a town rallies together to support each other whilst bringing the plight of small communities to the forefront. Analgesia, the condition the twins live with is an interesting twist in this story and only highlights how we all experience grief in different ways.
I love that the story is told through the relatively innocent eyes of Jack Murray, the 13 y.o. son of Tom. His view of people's relationships and interactions is beautiful in it's simplicity of the beliefs of right and wrong that we have as children.
A 'must read'.
I love that the story is told through the relatively innocent eyes of Jack Murray, the 13 y.o. son of Tom. His view of people's relationships and interactions is beautiful in it's simplicity of the beliefs of right and wrong that we have as children.
A 'must read'.
August 7, 2019
I received an ARC of this book.
I finished this book in one sitting. It was just too hard to put down.
Brilliantly written from the eyes of our 13 year old protagonist. Jack shows us his world as the son of a dairy farmer in Victoria’s Southwest.
It opens with the death of his father Tom Murray after he accidentally kills himself whilst in the act of protesting about the dairy industry and what is being done to the farmers. It is at this point that his wife decides to continue his fight and bring a call to action by taking his coffin to Melbourne on the back of a horse & cart. Whilst on this journey the family grieve and find more than they expected about their community.
Jack and his twin sister are not able to feel pain and so they find it hard to process their emotions about their father and the adventure they are on.
This tale has been written with classic Australian wit and humour. Even amongst their grief we experience laughter and giggles. Jack’s journey with his family opens our eyes to the plight of the dairy farmers and the underlying anger that exists there.
This is one of those novels that is going to become an Australian classic. Jack is a loveable 13 year old larrikin who just gets into your heart and holds on.
I finished this book in one sitting. It was just too hard to put down.
Brilliantly written from the eyes of our 13 year old protagonist. Jack shows us his world as the son of a dairy farmer in Victoria’s Southwest.
It opens with the death of his father Tom Murray after he accidentally kills himself whilst in the act of protesting about the dairy industry and what is being done to the farmers. It is at this point that his wife decides to continue his fight and bring a call to action by taking his coffin to Melbourne on the back of a horse & cart. Whilst on this journey the family grieve and find more than they expected about their community.
Jack and his twin sister are not able to feel pain and so they find it hard to process their emotions about their father and the adventure they are on.
This tale has been written with classic Australian wit and humour. Even amongst their grief we experience laughter and giggles. Jack’s journey with his family opens our eyes to the plight of the dairy farmers and the underlying anger that exists there.
This is one of those novels that is going to become an Australian classic. Jack is a loveable 13 year old larrikin who just gets into your heart and holds on.
February 26, 2019
I was surprised and delighted by this book. It was charming and witty and poignant. Every word was applied sparingly and precisely in a manner that suggests the author's tenth novel, not his first novel. The premise is a fed-up Australian dairy farmer, neck deep in debt, who decides to burn his house down rather than let the bank have it and ends up killing himself in the process. It's a wonderful premise, and so thoroughly of the times as to hook you in immediately. I found Dawn, our heroine, utterly compelling. I thought telling the story through the eyes of their thirteen year old son was a clever conceit - while not original, the age of the narrator allows the author to still engage with everything that's going on while his naivety gives a sense of distance from the story. This allows the grief experienced by family and friends to be set at a remove so the reader can focus on the more exciting and occasionally humorous parts of the story.
I could go on and on about why I loved this book so much. Suffice it to say it's just the right balance, just the right length, and just the right amount of charming that I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.
I could go on and on about why I loved this book so much. Suffice it to say it's just the right balance, just the right length, and just the right amount of charming that I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.
April 11, 2019
A horse-drawn funeral procession, a trail of burnt-out banks and supermarkets, a defiant widow and her two dry-eyed children … a country that allows its farmers to be forced off the land … has there ever been a book so deeply Australian as ‘Taking Tom Murray Home’? This book won the 2018 Banjo Prize, an award for an unpublished great Australian story – and storyteller. The winner, Tim Slee, is not only that, but also a great Australian humourist.
And what tinder-dry humour it is, flipping tragedy on its head to display the wry human comedy beneath – an Australian humour born of hardship, of anti-authoritarianism, of all-in-this-together camaraderie.
Through the mouths of his characters, Slee also echoes the Australian voices of the past – the voices of the working class and the rural poor, including Henry Lawson and Ned Kelly – to cast light on the plight of rural communities today.
At its core, this is a story of grief – and of protest. Commonsense would suggest it shouldn’t be funny or uplifting, and yet it is. It is rousing and hopeful and deeply down to earth, like the Australians it so keenly and sensitively portrays.
And what tinder-dry humour it is, flipping tragedy on its head to display the wry human comedy beneath – an Australian humour born of hardship, of anti-authoritarianism, of all-in-this-together camaraderie.
Through the mouths of his characters, Slee also echoes the Australian voices of the past – the voices of the working class and the rural poor, including Henry Lawson and Ned Kelly – to cast light on the plight of rural communities today.
At its core, this is a story of grief – and of protest. Commonsense would suggest it shouldn’t be funny or uplifting, and yet it is. It is rousing and hopeful and deeply down to earth, like the Australians it so keenly and sensitively portrays.
April 27, 2019
I loved this book!
Right from the first page, it drew me in and I did not want to put it down.
It is the story of ordinary people on an extraordinary journey, protesting their cause. It follows the group on their procession which rouses a community and gathers support. It is also a suspenseful story and up until the end we are left wondering who is lighting the fires along the way.
Jack and Jenny, the two young teenagers at the heart of this story are great characters. Jack is telling the story and is full of questions about everything and he and his sister are close companions but also have secrets from each other.
The story is very Australian - the reader gets a strong sense of the countryside, the history, the community, the poetry, the people and attitudes and especially the humour. Although the story has themes of death, struggle and loss, it is moving but not sad and is very funny in parts.
It is easy to see how this story won The Banjo prize.
The reader jumps on the wagon at the beginning and can not get off until the journey finishes. And the story and the people stay with you long after you’ve finished reading the book.
Right from the first page, it drew me in and I did not want to put it down.
It is the story of ordinary people on an extraordinary journey, protesting their cause. It follows the group on their procession which rouses a community and gathers support. It is also a suspenseful story and up until the end we are left wondering who is lighting the fires along the way.
Jack and Jenny, the two young teenagers at the heart of this story are great characters. Jack is telling the story and is full of questions about everything and he and his sister are close companions but also have secrets from each other.
The story is very Australian - the reader gets a strong sense of the countryside, the history, the community, the poetry, the people and attitudes and especially the humour. Although the story has themes of death, struggle and loss, it is moving but not sad and is very funny in parts.
It is easy to see how this story won The Banjo prize.
The reader jumps on the wagon at the beginning and can not get off until the journey finishes. And the story and the people stay with you long after you’ve finished reading the book.
May 18, 2019
I was introduced to Slee's incredible talent in rapid succession - first The Vanirim, with its twisty, futuristic plot that sucks you in from the get-go, then followed by my forever-favorite Charlie Jones series whose irrepressible title character captivates and entertains. These memorable works couldn't be more different from each other and collectively, they demonstrate Slee's versatility and skill as a writer. His latest work, Taking Tom Murray Home, is equally wonderful and will no doubt earn him a legions of new fans. It is a vast departure from the themes of Slee's prior work, highlighting the plight of Australian farmers and consequences of human powerlessness. Told from the viewpoint of an adolescent boy struggling to process his father's death, readers experience rather than merely witness the events that unfold on the long and eventful journey to bring the body to its place of rest. Slee's masterful writing and storytelling abilities will once again beguile readers from start to finish.
August 14, 2020
I enjoyed this book, but I'm not really sure what it was trying to achieve, so I didn't love it. Sometimes it felt like a simple book designed to bring attention to the plight of dairy farmers in Victoria and what can happen when tensions boil over, but other times it felt incredibly melodramatic or went off on strange side tangents.
But, as always, I love the understated humour that always comes with Aussie fiction and there were so many great references here - Tom worshipping at the altar of the Geelong Cats; the fact that Jack has no idea who Henry Lawson is; and so many others I could go back and name.
But, as always, I love the understated humour that always comes with Aussie fiction and there were so many great references here - Tom worshipping at the altar of the Geelong Cats; the fact that Jack has no idea who Henry Lawson is; and so many others I could go back and name.
March 6, 2019
Really loved this very readable, enjoyable, quirky novel. At times it's so Australian. But it certainly is a book of it's time. Although the author has written previous novels, this is certainly a worthy winner of this new award, (the Banjo Award) and I for one hope it achieves broad readership, because it deserves it.
May 26, 2022
This was a juicy adventure in an Australia I recognise from my farming childhood. A tragicomedy of epic proportions involving a community of very human humans. Would totally recommend as a laughing, crying, inspiring work of fabulosity.
September 13, 2019
Telling a story with as much colour as this one rich as this one, through the eyes of a 13 year old, is a bold challenge.
AND the author nails it!
How we deal with death and injustice and our personal weaknesses not to mention what we are doing to the planet are all wrapped up in this funny/sad poignant story. Oh and the horse with a character as big as his heart.
I read this book in one sitting. And cried and laughed with a family that invited me into their tragedy and their way of making sense of how they arrived there.
I really enjoyed this book.
AND the author nails it!
How we deal with death and injustice and our personal weaknesses not to mention what we are doing to the planet are all wrapped up in this funny/sad poignant story. Oh and the horse with a character as big as his heart.
I read this book in one sitting. And cried and laughed with a family that invited me into their tragedy and their way of making sense of how they arrived there.
I really enjoyed this book.
September 7, 2019
Tim Slee resonates an authentic Aussie narrative voice within his novel, cultivating national heritage with sheer comedic genius to articulate challenges of rural living. The novel is a tale of death, debacles and mystery which entails a voyage through outback Australia. Specific characterization explores how some individuals are confined by gender roles, implanted externally through societal means. As a year 12 student myself, I have been personally challenged as the development of a strong feminine protagonist opened up realizations of my true self. I strongly recommend this novel to fellow school students as a mechanism to unravel personal endeavors and obstacles.
March 19, 2020
A really enjoyable read, set against the background of the crisis in the dairy industry and it’s impact on a family and a community.
November 23, 2019
A touching book with a lovely set of twins
July 6, 2019
Reading Tim Slee’s Banjo Prize winning novel took me far longer than it would usually, but for ultimately praiseworthy reasons. My husband and I are travelling regional Australia for a year, living out of the back of a small AWD. While I’ve been slowly reading ‘Tom Murray,’ we’ve been trundling through dairy, sheep, grain and orchard country, and amongst fisheries, forests and national parks. Everyday we’ve been listening to Australians, many of whom are confronting the novel’s themes.
Slee’s prose allows you to meet some of Australia’s the places and faces, just like travel. That’s why I was happy to take time with ‘Tom Murray.’ The resonances between the fiction and our camp fire yarns run genuinely deep.
Slee employs a clever plot device which takes readers on ram-shackle funeral parade through the recognisably-drawn towns, highways and backroads of Southern Victoria. We even get to cross Queenscliff to Sorrento Ferry. You’re right there. For me this was one of the delights of the novel. We know these places.
The titular Tom Murray, never appears on the page, but he remains 'the bloody fool' whose symbolic presence haunts the story. The dairy farmer accidentally dies while torching his family homestead in protest against the bank's looming foreclosure. Or does he?
Dawn, his destitute but feisty widow is a remarkable. She doesn’t hesitate. She loads her thirteen-year-old twins, Jack and Jenny, along with Tom's coffin, onto a friend's horse drawn cart and heads for Melbourne, Tom’s childhood home. The growing entourage processes towards the goal of Federation Square, all the while raising awareness about ordinary people being relentlessly squeezed. In the funeral procession's wake, banks and supermarkets are mysteriously set ablaze, the media scavenge for outrage and then riots flame in far away cities. All the way, Slee infuses the tale with Australian irreverence, persistence and dignity. Ned Kelly, Henry Lawson leap from the prose as do indigenous Aunties and the light of Australian spaces.
Jack and Jenny are coming-of-age characters who face such confusion and loss just as they are reaching adolescence. Both have a physical condition which leaves them immune to physical pain and unable to shed tears; a metaphor, perhaps, for the broader community’s vulnerability when damage is being done to our social fabric but we’re not able to step back from the process to name it and take a stand. Interestingly, the twins differ in their actions. It’s particularly through Jack, as the novel’s naïve, inquisitive narrator, that readers witness the family being buoyed by the kindness of strangers. Jack also sits quietly, listening to the conflicting views. Not everyone likes what the family are doing. Some say they should be stopped. Some want them to shut up. It’s the mark of good literature that such disagreements are allowed to play out in the text so that readers can work out their own ideas.
How will we find a way forward? People die, families fall apart, livelihoods are lost, industries falter, habitats are dying. Some may claim we’re the lucky country, but for whom? So as individuals, families, communities and nationally, do we allow ourselves to feel the rage and despair as our common wealth is drained by corporate profiteering and the ravages of climate? Or are we standing idly by, numb and isolated from our neighbours, and voiceless?
I, for one, am glad, that an author of Slee’s calibre has turned his voice to address such contemporary concerns.
Slee’s prose allows you to meet some of Australia’s the places and faces, just like travel. That’s why I was happy to take time with ‘Tom Murray.’ The resonances between the fiction and our camp fire yarns run genuinely deep.
Slee employs a clever plot device which takes readers on ram-shackle funeral parade through the recognisably-drawn towns, highways and backroads of Southern Victoria. We even get to cross Queenscliff to Sorrento Ferry. You’re right there. For me this was one of the delights of the novel. We know these places.
The titular Tom Murray, never appears on the page, but he remains 'the bloody fool' whose symbolic presence haunts the story. The dairy farmer accidentally dies while torching his family homestead in protest against the bank's looming foreclosure. Or does he?
Dawn, his destitute but feisty widow is a remarkable. She doesn’t hesitate. She loads her thirteen-year-old twins, Jack and Jenny, along with Tom's coffin, onto a friend's horse drawn cart and heads for Melbourne, Tom’s childhood home. The growing entourage processes towards the goal of Federation Square, all the while raising awareness about ordinary people being relentlessly squeezed. In the funeral procession's wake, banks and supermarkets are mysteriously set ablaze, the media scavenge for outrage and then riots flame in far away cities. All the way, Slee infuses the tale with Australian irreverence, persistence and dignity. Ned Kelly, Henry Lawson leap from the prose as do indigenous Aunties and the light of Australian spaces.
Jack and Jenny are coming-of-age characters who face such confusion and loss just as they are reaching adolescence. Both have a physical condition which leaves them immune to physical pain and unable to shed tears; a metaphor, perhaps, for the broader community’s vulnerability when damage is being done to our social fabric but we’re not able to step back from the process to name it and take a stand. Interestingly, the twins differ in their actions. It’s particularly through Jack, as the novel’s naïve, inquisitive narrator, that readers witness the family being buoyed by the kindness of strangers. Jack also sits quietly, listening to the conflicting views. Not everyone likes what the family are doing. Some say they should be stopped. Some want them to shut up. It’s the mark of good literature that such disagreements are allowed to play out in the text so that readers can work out their own ideas.
How will we find a way forward? People die, families fall apart, livelihoods are lost, industries falter, habitats are dying. Some may claim we’re the lucky country, but for whom? So as individuals, families, communities and nationally, do we allow ourselves to feel the rage and despair as our common wealth is drained by corporate profiteering and the ravages of climate? Or are we standing idly by, numb and isolated from our neighbours, and voiceless?
I, for one, am glad, that an author of Slee’s calibre has turned his voice to address such contemporary concerns.
October 4, 2019
A very thought provoking book especially in the time of crisis in the dairy industry.. really enjoyed this one.. I’m a strong supporter of buying branded milk as our cousins own a dairy farm in Rockhampton.. very enjoyable and easy read
August 21, 2019
Loved it! I think this book will be an Australian classic. A dairy farmer that has lost his farm. A funeral processions that sends a message. It’s full of characters that are instantly Australian. The language is completely naturally Australian ‘cop’ ‘digde’ ‘yeah’ ‘later’..nothing over the top, just normal. I read it as a quintessentially Australian book. A great read that is so thoughtful.
August 17, 2019
I loved this book. A story that has love and loss, laughter and sadness, light and darkness.
April 4, 2019
I fell in love with this book from the get go - it's just such a charmer, with a heart of gold. It's hugely topical - in some ways, the plot feels like it's ripped from the headlines: a farmer forced off his land by a combination of the banks and the drought; a tragic accident; a grieving widow; an angry community that decides to protest ... All that makes it sound like it's going to be really grim, but the joy of the book is that it's the exact opposite. There's very real warmth here, and humour (yes, I laughed out loud) and I love the way that we get to know and love these people. As Dawn and her motley troop of supporters make their very slow way from country Victoria to Melbourne (the slowest, longest, most unlikely funeral procession you'll ever come across), you just find yourself gunning for these people. They're our underdogs, our Henry Lawson battlers - and they become as real to you as your Nana, or your neighbours, or your mates. There's just something so authentically Australian about this book - the plot, the dry, laconic humour, the characters. If you love slightly quirky books, like The Rosie Project, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen or The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, then I think you'll love this story. Five stars!!
March 23, 2022
An easy read written from the point of view of a 13year old boy the son of Tom Murray the recently deceased dairy farmer. Tom burnt his house on his farm down rather than let the bank have it as he struggled with debt which is blamed on the supermarkets paying less than production costs for his milk. Unfortunately he dies in the process. Following the journey of the family with the coffin containing his dad on the back of a wagon being pulled by a draughthorse along the highways and byways on it's journey to Melbourne for burial. Making the story is the assortment of 0eople they gather on the way hippies farmers coppers journalists all making a story which is relatable to Australians familiar with this story and the mass exodus of dairy farmers in the last few years. A couple of interesting back stories add interest. A book with a real Australian feel, language Aussies will be familiar with and yes makes you think about how important it is to understand where the food on your plate comes from.
August 2, 2019
What a great book! Funny sad light and dark. A great yarn.
April 7, 2019
Taking Tom Murray Home tells the story of the issues surrounding modern day Australian farming and communities through the eyes of a young teenager. This could well have been a work of non-fiction as it accurately reflects the current issues of our farmers (and beyond).
This book has it all - drought, debt, death, fires, mateship, humour and true Australian spirit. A page-turner from beginning to end, I wanted to find out just what would happen to this strong group of family and friends and couldn’t put the book down.
I don’t remember the last time I sat down and read a book in one sitting and cant want to read what else Tim Slee has in store for us. A definite 5 stars!
This book has it all - drought, debt, death, fires, mateship, humour and true Australian spirit. A page-turner from beginning to end, I wanted to find out just what would happen to this strong group of family and friends and couldn’t put the book down.
I don’t remember the last time I sat down and read a book in one sitting and cant want to read what else Tim Slee has in store for us. A definite 5 stars!
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