* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *
A Far-Flung Life by M.L Stedman is going to be in My Top 5 Books of 2026 list, without a doubt. I finished it last month and I still have a long reading year ahead of me but this Australian historical fiction novel blew me away.
Stedman begins this family saga with the history of the MacBride family who took up country in Western Australia (WA) in the 1800s and established Meredith Downs; an outback sheep station. We join the current MacBride family in 1958 and the author provides an excellent overview of the brutal and unforgiving landscape, describing the fierce nature of the heat, the sun, the wind and the rain and their power to both nurture and destroy.
"Everything that can do you good can also do you harm here - that's just the way of it." Page 7*The MacBrides have worked the land for generations and family is everything, so when an unexpected tragedy takes place - mentioned in the blurb - the trajectory of their lives takes a dramatic turn. A Far-Flung Life is a generational family saga about life, love, purpose and family that also carries more than its fair share of secrets, heartbreak and loss.
Somehow the beauty of the landscape, the ever present demands of Meredith Downs and the resilience of the characters prevent the narrative from becoming too bleak or dispiriting. By contrast, I felt hopeful, optimistic and energised by the steadfast and inspiring characters doing their best to move forward.
As a kid, my family lived in outback New South Wales for 2 years and we had friends who owned vast sheep stations so I read about the diaries and ledgers of Meredith Downs with great interest.
"There are the ledgers; the wool returns; the vermin records; the Field Book of Meteorological Observations for the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne; the cricket score books; and the little greasy shearing tally books stained with lanolin from pulling them in and out of a shirt pocket as you count the wool clip run by run, shed by shed, day by day." Page 49Diaries are kept of every day events including sheep bought or sold, new motor vehicles, paddock rotations, staff changes and more to enable the station to provide information to the tax man, Lands Department or Undersecretary for Lands in the case of drought relief.
In addition to being character-driven, the novel seems to be a deep reflection on the inevitable passage of time and its impact on the landscape and the people who inhabit it.
"On any old outback property, you can see them, the skeletons of dreams. Houses long abandoned, windmills rusting, fence posts splintered, tank stands collapsed: every one of them was once a hopeful beginning." Page 64The ready understanding that many generations have been before us and we will soon join them in history is something I love about Ken Follett's novels. He also writes about the passage of time and the evolution of families from generation to generation and it was brilliant to read such an accomplished Australian point of view of our colonial history.
"Every wreck, every ruin is the vestige of a dream, lasting long after the body of its dreamer has been received back into the earth with love or remorse or indifference." Page 64-65A Far-Flung Life is being promoted by the publisher as 'the biggest Australian novel of the year' and I wholeheartedly agree. I was moved by the characters and their individual plight, and felt a genuine connection to Meredith Downs despite being a proud city dweller and reading this at sea while on a cruise.
In 2012, I read and reviewed The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman and gave it a glowing 5 star review. In an interview with Good Reading recently, I was impressed to read about the detailed level of research Stedman has been conducting since then in order to write A Far-Flung Life and it's definitely been worth the wait. Stedman now has two stellar Australian novels under her belt and I'm sure this is going to be another huge bestseller.
Highly recommended and you can read an EXTRACT here.
* I read an ARC so the page numbers quoted may vary in the final copy.
Carpe Librum!
I received this book in the Goodreads lunch book exchange. I started it on the tram home and became completely immersed in the world of Meredith Downs over the next few days. It was a 5 star read for me too. This book has changed my opinion of historical fiction and I’m looking forward to catching up with The Light Between Oceans.
ReplyDeleteI’ve heard mixed reviews, but I can’t edit to read it Tracey!
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