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Clancy's Crossing
From Australia's master storyteller Evan Green, author of such bestselling novels as Alice to Nowhere, Adam's Empire and Kalinda, comes an unforgettable epic - a story which will endure for all time.
They say no one from the convict settlement of Sydney Town crossed the steep ranges of the Blue Mountains until 1813. But the quick-witted convict Clancy Fitzgerald did it in 1798, dragging with him the proud, but reluctant, Eliza Phillips.
Failure meant the noose, so their only hope was to push forward, into the unknown. Faced with constant danger and wrenching isolation, Clancy and Eliza find themselves pale-skinned strangers in a land of ancient traditions and spiritual beliefs. But their destiny is dramatically altered when Clancy discovers a golden road to fortune and makes a triumphant return to white society as a new man - in more ways than one...
'Clancy's Crossing' is a captivating story of entangled love affairs and high adventure, of man's battle with nature and with himself. Never has this period of Australian history been so vividly and compellingly captured.
They say no one from the convict settlement of Sydney Town crossed the steep ranges of the Blue Mountains until 1813. But the quick-witted convict Clancy Fitzgerald did it in 1798, dragging with him the proud, but reluctant, Eliza Phillips.
Failure meant the noose, so their only hope was to push forward, into the unknown. Faced with constant danger and wrenching isolation, Clancy and Eliza find themselves pale-skinned strangers in a land of ancient traditions and spiritual beliefs. But their destiny is dramatically altered when Clancy discovers a golden road to fortune and makes a triumphant return to white society as a new man - in more ways than one...
'Clancy's Crossing' is a captivating story of entangled love affairs and high adventure, of man's battle with nature and with himself. Never has this period of Australian history been so vividly and compellingly captured.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
625 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 23, 2014
1995
Elsbeth picked up this book for me to read while in Sydney, since it tells a story about the very early years [end of 1700s, early 1800s] of European settlement of Sydney and the Hawkesbury [river and valley].
Easy reading, plenty of action. The author imagines the characters of three escaped convicts who end up living with an Aboriginal group who takes good care of them. A lot of the description of behavior and feelings of these British convicts and of their Aboriginal friends seems implausible.
On the other hand, attributing all these feelings helps one to view Aboriginals as real people 'just like us'.
Description of Aboriginal customs matches the bits I have read of ilfe stories of Aboriginals growing up in the early 1900s.
The book shows most Europeans' views of the 'savages' as non-human, and this seems accurate for that time.
End note:
"The route Clancy and Eliza took over the Blue Mtns is that taken in 1822 by Archibald Bell jr. to Lithgow Road, now known as Bell's Line of Road." [So this is the road we were on for a while near Kurrajong, where we ate lunch in a mediocre deli on the way to Victoria and Blackheath in the Blue Mtns. We were so curious about the strange name of the road: Bell's Line of Road]
"In the Windsor region [which includes the Ebenezer Church we saw] there were 10 major floods of the Hawkesbury River between 1799 and 1819 [=the period of this novel]."
I am wondering: if Evan Green is such a best-selling author in Australia, why are there almost no reviews of this book on Goodreads?
Elsbeth picked up this book for me to read while in Sydney, since it tells a story about the very early years [end of 1700s, early 1800s] of European settlement of Sydney and the Hawkesbury [river and valley].
Easy reading, plenty of action. The author imagines the characters of three escaped convicts who end up living with an Aboriginal group who takes good care of them. A lot of the description of behavior and feelings of these British convicts and of their Aboriginal friends seems implausible.
On the other hand, attributing all these feelings helps one to view Aboriginals as real people 'just like us'.
Description of Aboriginal customs matches the bits I have read of ilfe stories of Aboriginals growing up in the early 1900s.
The book shows most Europeans' views of the 'savages' as non-human, and this seems accurate for that time.
End note:
"The route Clancy and Eliza took over the Blue Mtns is that taken in 1822 by Archibald Bell jr. to Lithgow Road, now known as Bell's Line of Road." [So this is the road we were on for a while near Kurrajong, where we ate lunch in a mediocre deli on the way to Victoria and Blackheath in the Blue Mtns. We were so curious about the strange name of the road: Bell's Line of Road]
"In the Windsor region [which includes the Ebenezer Church we saw] there were 10 major floods of the Hawkesbury River between 1799 and 1819 [=the period of this novel]."
I am wondering: if Evan Green is such a best-selling author in Australia, why are there almost no reviews of this book on Goodreads?
August 21, 2014
fantastic really descriptive,a book I couldn't put down!!! Will be reading a lot more from this author.
January 1, 2015
Brilliant thriller mixed with Australian colonial history.
January 19, 2023
I really enjoyed reading about the convicts, first settlements in the Hawkesbury and Windsor area and the way the book highlighted not only the devastation to the aboriginals and their way of life, but honoured how our first Australians lived on the land.
February 16, 2020
Thoroughly enjoyed it!
October 22, 2020
Great look into the life of the convicts and early Australia
December 13, 2024
Great yarn!
The relationship between Clancy and Eliza was not explored enough in the months/ years after escaping. That, I thought, was a major weakness. It felt like a gap in the story, when it could have been enriched much more.
Well worth the read, though!
The relationship between Clancy and Eliza was not explored enough in the months/ years after escaping. That, I thought, was a major weakness. It felt like a gap in the story, when it could have been enriched much more.
Well worth the read, though!
January 19, 2021
A wonderful book to give us Australians an incite into the beginnings of the colony of New South Wales. Of course a lot was imagined but still a great story.
March 14, 2015
I enjoyed the book but found the ending ,although the best that could be imagined, most unrealistic.Clancy wasn't essentially a bad man just a product of the ghastly conditions which he found himself. He loved the life and the freedom the aborigines had and found the life of a wealthy man very restricting in every way. He rolled with the punches and accepted the results. De Lacy became a tortured soul hell bent on redemption at any cost. I was very interested to read about the aborigine culture and beliefs.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews