Tim Winton’s latest book – Island Home – is a memoir, rather than his usual novel genre. And yet, the book is a beautiful collection of essays which build together to paint a love story starring the Australian countryside where Tim has spent most of his years living. Even if you don’t normally read non-fiction, consider this one of his novels in disguise!
I’m liking
Tim’s book starts off as a beautiful recounting of his time living overseas, and feeling homesickness for the great open spaces in Australia. He’s living an amazing experience surrounded by history and culture and gorgeous scenery in Europe but he feels a form of claustrophobia: there no wide open expanses basically untouched by humans around him. And so begins his love story for the Australian outback.
Through the book, I learnt about his environmental activism to protect areas in Australia and the way that wildlife and plant life are at risk of being lost there. Some of the stories are rather tragic. In the same way that one longs with nostalgia for our childhood, Winton longs for the lost spaces, even in a country as vast as Australia.
Things that made me go hmmmm
While I felt the book started and ended strongly, some of the essays in the middle I didn’t enjoy as much and felt they could have been skipped over. The book doesn’t need to be read in order though.
The conclusion
Any fan of Tim Winton’s would love this book, even though it is not a novel. If you love the Australian outback, you’ll enjoy reading about this too. And, if you’re interested in some of the environmental issues Australia is facing, this is excellent — the information is right up to date with recent law changes. It doesn’t ever get too heavy, so is a nice summer read too.
Overall, I like how the book makes you think about the importance of your physical environment and how we can get involved to protect things and places we hold dearly in our hearts.
