Ireland, early 1800s. The Napoleonic Wars have ended, leaving an already disjointed country in peril. Maurice O'Dwyer, a young Irishman, considers the lifeless body of an English tithe-collector slain under a rain-filled sky. From that moment it seems his fate is sealed: he and his young simpleton brother, Padraig, are exiled to Australia, \u003ci\u003eAn Astráil\u003c/i\u003e, to the convict-filled island of Van Diemen's Land - leaving behind his love, his land, and his liberty. However, in the bush Maurice discovers that there are allies in the most unlikely of places.\u003cbr /\u003e \u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat the critics said\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u0026quot;With the passion of an activist and the ear of a poet, John Tully constructs his novel out of the differing perspectives of the colonial project, weaving Irish lives and English lives, black experiences and white experiences into a dense tapestry of oppression and the many little resistances it fostered. This is an account of settlement in all its complexity, a multilayered book written with a deep sympathy for ordinary people coping with the collision of very different worlds. It's a text built from parallels, echoes and resonances, a much-needed excavation of a past that still haunts us.\u0026quot; - Jeff Sparrow, co-author of \u003ci\u003eRadical Melbourne: A Secret History\u003c/i\u003e
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