About

Karragu, a picaresque tale of small town and country life in Western Australia’s wheat and sheep heartlands, is not just a good read for a quiet Saturday afternoon’s relaxation. It’s an outstanding first novel by Brisbane author, Juliet Sandison, a talented but little-known eighty-year-old writer and poet of many years standing, with two collections of short stories and poems already to her name, whose work has also been published in The Weekend Australian and a number of literary journals too.

Set in a rural farming community surrounding a small country town in the 1980’s, Karragu is a gripping account of almost epic proportions of personal and ideological conflict between the owners of two neighbouring properties - one an Australian ‘battler’ and his wife, the other a wealthy and grasping landowner and grazier.

Displaying acute sensitivity in characterisation and dialogue, and with humour, compassion and understanding, Juliet presents a wide case of ‘true-to-life’ characters, with all their foibles and idiosyncrasies, their human strengths and weaknesses. There’s romance, too, in the testing of the relationship between Don and Rebecca by their close friend Greg, and the touching and tragic tale of a young girl’s first love for a handsome older married but separated man. ‘At times almost a bodice-and-a-shirt ripper too, but never telling too much’, commented one approving reviewer. But above all, this is the story of ordinary people leading extraordinary lives, of mateship, loyalty and love; of the triumph of the human spirit over physical and economic adversity.

Juliet grew up in Western Australia’s southwest and her long experience of the Australian bush coupled with her shrewd and sympathetic observation of those who live and work far from the comfortable existence of suburban life has given her writing such an authentic touch that her grandchildren and nieces and nephews have been asking who its characters really were!

This is indeed an outstanding first novel, and we look forward to the next two, which Juliet says are already in preparation.

Proudly published by Post Pressed

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