I am feeling a bit envious of these folks. I wonder how it works these day? I remember all the squatters and off grid folks back in the 60's and 70's, and always thought it would be great to just light off into the wilderness and stake a claim and live off the land. It sounds like a wonderful life and I am sure the kids have fond memories of the freedom. I wonder if it is at all possible to do it in this day and age? Enjoyable story.

I gave this book a 5 out of 5 star review. It was an enjoyable and I would recommend. to others. Generously provided to me through NetGalley

REVIEW: The road to Tralfamadore is bathed in river water

Narrated in an inquisitive and playful voice with a dinky-di accent, and an abiding love of hot chips smothered in vinegar, this interlinked series of stories invites the reader into a child’s world. Although the effect is subtle, the writing has an underlying musicality that sweeps the reader along as the narrator bombs into the river or wriggles into tunnels forged through the blackberries clasping a precious copy of The Magic Faraway Tree.

In her own version of Enid Blyton’s fable, Blaise Van Hecke beckons us to come with her on a looping journey, as she traces her mother’s search for a sympathetic place to settle her young family and live an artist’s life. After travelling as far away as an isolated farmstead in Belgium, the family pack up their car and travel through the south east corner of Australia, before they eventually land in ‘Tralfamadore’.

Half real, half literary creation, ‘Tralfamadore’ is a vision of an alien home in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and a cluster of dwellings nestled between a river and a creek in a remote patch of bushland. In both instances ‘Tralfamadore’ is a sanctuary, and the concept resonates as that special place we each carry within our innermost being.

What is not written but rings throughout the text is a sense of the courage and optimism it takes to actually inhabit ‘Tralfamadore’. While the idyllic landscape might call to the wild side of our spirits, it also harbours the occasional red-bellied black snake sliding through the grass, or the serene and nurturing river at the heart of it all can also threaten to burst its banks and swallow the little family’s patch of land.

Even though we won’t find it on any printed map, we have been given a key to enter ‘Tralfamadore’ and experience it’s uncompromising beauty as we immerse ourselves among the leaves of this slender volume.