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The Road to Gundagai by Jackie French
JUDGES' COMMENTS
Perhaps what is most remarkable about Jackie French’s legendary output is the quality of her work and the depth of the research in her historical fiction. The Road to Gundagai is arguably the finest example yet of her ability to take the reader to another time and place. In this case the time is 1932, and the place is country Victoria, which has been ravaged socially, economically and physically by the Great Depression, and by drought.
Into this barren, hopeless world shuffles Bluebell, a 16-year-old orphan girl who has narrowly survived a house fire, and is now being ‘cared for’ — possibly poisoned — by her aunts. She is desperate to escape, but the world is a scary place for a young girl who is disfigured, poor and virtually alone. So when the Magnifico Family Circus comes to town, Blue sees a perfect opportunity to escape, and to disappear almost without trace, literally overnight. But, of course, nothing is ever as it seems; not even the kindly circus family who saved her. With adroitly handled historical detail, evocative writing, intrigue, mystery, wonderful characters and settings — and the odd murder — The Road to Gundagai is, most importantly, a cracking good read.