The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop

The Other Side of the World is the second novel of this Australian author I had not encountered before. Her first, The Singing, was Highly Commended for the Kathleen Mitchell Award and for which she was named by the Sydney Morning Herald as one of Australia’s Best Young Novelists. Bishop holds a PhD from Cambridge University, lives in Sydney and lectures in creative writing at the University of New South Wales. 

This story deals compellingly with displacement and the life of the emigrant. It follows a couple with two small children as they decide to move from England to Perth, West Australia for a better climate and better lives for themselves and their children. Henry, the father was brought up to be very British in India and upon arrival loves the heat. His wife, Charlotte experiences it differently.

They soon discover the glossy brochure upon which they’d based their hopes for the future had not told the whole story. Their attempts at a garden fail, cockroaches and biting insects make their unwelcome presence known and lurking not at all under the surface is the racism they had not expected to encounter. As the university position Henry was accepted for grows less and less fulfilling for Henry, Charlotte finds other ways to escape her unwanted life on the other side of the world.  

A brave, tender, not at all predictable book that stayed with me for days afterwards. 
Also released under the title Dream England.

Posted by CC.

Catalogue link: The Other Side of the World