It's easy to see why the literati were so taken by Foal's Bread which was nominated for several of Australia's literary awards this year and won quite a few. While tightly focused on the Nancarrow family, and One Tree Hill Farm, the story encompasses the events of society, touching on the world wars and their impact on the home front. The harsh realities of farming in the bush and the drudgery of day to day existence is detailed without sentiment or the rosy glow of nostalgia. Mears also explores the burdens of family legacies and the narrow fate of those tied to the land and it's vagaries.

Yet I couldn't help but admire their resilience and the way in which they kept moving forward despite broken minds, bodies and dreams.

The way in which they turn sour, love twisted by ambition, jealousy and tragedy, lasting happiness elusive. The intimate relationships between the members of the Nancarrow family are compelling. At times I found it difficult to go on yet I also found I could not let go, challenged by the intriguing characters and fascinated by a time and place long gone. Mears cultivates an oppressive atmosphere where joy is short lived and always edged in achingly raw heartbreak. Spanning several decades, from the mid 1920's to the 1950's, set in the hard country of New South Wales, this is a compelling novel that traces the life of Noah Child.įoal's Bread is a novel that is appreciated rather than enjoyed, for the unrelenting tragedy that dogs Noah and the Nancarrows is almost unrelieved. In the moonlight, at the base of One Tree Hill, a fourteen year old girl watches impassively as her fate drifts down river in a butter box. Though wonderfully evocative and lyrical, Foal's Bread is a bleak, raw story of loss, hardship and love.

Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears