Bereft is one of the better novels that I have read in recent years. It is one that is so well written that it has made me rethink my own novel that is in progress. I learned so much from this author about simple details that make a story engrossing and appealing so that I will always be grateful that he designed this story so well. This is a marvelous story about an injustice that is so horrible that nobody can imagine a proper way to address this problem. Uniquely, this author creates characters who finally resolve a problem that deserves admiration. I was simply stunned while I read this dreadful tale of the bubonic plague or the bout of influenza that wiped out the population during the great war. The Great War is World War II. It is even more difficult to imagine the injustices that occurred in those days when we understand how difficult it is for the truth to ever overpower the awesomeness of a lie that becomes believed.
I learned things about Australia that I had never considered before, but then I have yet to visit this strange continent where birds seldom sing but seem to cackle, where kangaroos hop, and koala bears munch on leaves from trees. This time period in Australia's history is intense, dreary, and full of perils both from ordinary mankind and diseases.
Quinn, Sarah, and William are brothers and sister in this family who reside in Flint, a small town. Quinn and Sarah are inseparable, are even called Romeo and Juliet by a few who consider their relationship with one another a bit strange. Sarah knows how to control Quinn easily so that he is ever at her command. William stays a bit apart from both of them, being more interested in his mechanical toys.
Sarah is cruelly raped and murdered and Quinn is seen with blood on his body, and a knife in his hand by his father, uncle, and thus is considered to be the person who has murdered the young girl. Because he ran away from the scene, the assumption is that he has raped and killed his own sister, so that even his own father and mother come to believe in his guilt rather than even considering that he could be innocent.
He joined the military to fight in the Great War and was sent to France where he won a medal for bravery and courage, having saved some men's lives. One of the most amazing parts of this story is the recollection that Quinn has of his time spent fighting this great war. It is bleak, stark, and very moving. During the time that he is in France, he manages to get to London to where he meets up with some very strange people who believe in mediums and spiritualists so that he receives a strange message from one of the girls who is entrapped at the medium's place of business to go into trances and to give messages to those who wish to communicate with the faithful departed. This is a fascinating chapter in which we learn why it is that these spiritualistic mediums thrive so well. This visit causes him to return to Australia to find his parents, to try to convince them of his innocence.
His mother has contracted the influenza or the plague whichever it is that is destroying the population, and so his father will not enter the house to talk with his wife so that he won't get the disease. However, Quinn does visit with his mother, talks with her, and tries to convince her of his innocence regarding the death of his sister. He does know who the real murderer is, but he won't reveal it to his mother. I won't spoil this part of it but it is a very integral and important part of the plot to finally achieve justice.
While he has been sleeping out in the countryside near his parents home he makes the acquaintance of a young girl whose mother has died, whose brother is off at war, and whose father left years ago. The girl is entirely on her own, and has to struggle to survive. She is one of the most fascinating characters in this story.
Gradually, she befriends Quinn, challenges him with her survival skills, and together, they both determine how to deal with the problem of the two men who had raped and killed Sarah, because it turns out that she is only one of several girls that this pair has killed after raping them, and Sadie fears for her own safety and life as well.
Through a carefully developed story line we come to learn of fairies in England, Kensington Garden in London, witchcraft, spirits, talking with animals, plants, and insects so that eventually a confrontation does finally occur between the real murderer and Quinn.
This is a very suspenseful drama in which we finally learn how Sarah was murdered, and who the second man in the heinous crime had been. Sadie and Quinn are some pair, but they are able to survive amidst the worst of hardships, living in a wreck of a shack, stealing from the community necessaries, and bonding in a touching way that makes one come to like and love both of these strange characters brought together in the harshest of environments.
Justice does finally happen. In a most intriguing way, the author brings this dreadful story to a necessary conclusion. The reader knows all along who the real murderer is, but the problem of proving it is absolutely something that will never be possible. Even as an eyewitness to the murder, Quinn is still up against the bias and prejudice of the temper of the day. Few would believe him, especially his parents.
Quinn and Sadie do become heroic in a sense. There are so many stark and gloomy scenes in this novel since both the plague and the war have brought about changes in the lives of the townspeople that this setting makes the heinous crime seem rather ordinary.
Womersley has a sense of drama that is unique and interesting...a kind of story for children that adults must read to appreciate that in the end it is for adults after all.
I loved the epilogue. If there is justice at all, it is in the Epilogue.
I recommend this as one of the best books I have read in years. It has had such an impact on me that I cannot stop thinking about it. It is a survivor story, one that questions the reality of God in man's life. Has God truly abandoned everyone? Is mankind bereft?
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