This was the PERFECT read for a rainy weekend in lockdown. A tale of a married couple dealing with changes in their relationship when the wife has a cancer scare while the husband, a long-time farmer, considers his future in the wake of seemingly never-ending drought. What an insight this author has into who we are and how we are changed by circumstance. There is so much here that is so simple, so delicate, but so deeply felt -- from looks and tones of voice, to the sense of place, the feel of the rain and smell of the heat. I was so taken by the ways in which this couple related to each other and worked together to figure out their next steps into middle-age. The respect, the fear, the doubt, and the love is all there. This is a beautifully written couple. I enjoyed the story, and look forward to author's next work.

I was drawn right in to the story the marriage.The couple their struggles so well drawn I felt like I knew them.A smart thoughtful character driven novel that kept me turning the pages late into the night.#netgalley#scribe

This is a very different work from my usual reads, and for that, it felt like a treat. It is a small book at just about 208 pages and is for a leisure reader. I will elaborate on what exactly that is.

We are taken to a dusty farm in Australia, parched waiting for rain and life is hard. The couple we meet have been married for years, have two sons and have been taking care of the farm. There is a shakeup in the offing, with a medical report which comes in and then they take a trip both mentally and physically. Each reveals more to them about things they have become complacent about and might make or break their lifestyles. There is not much that actually ‘happens’ in the exact sense of that word, but enough is described to keep the reader reeled in. The casual analysis of a long relationship was fascinating to watch unfold. There are sporadic thoughts given to the ethics of living on lands colonized centuries ago juxtaposed with how the richer and bigger people or corporations tale over those who are weaker. There is a lot to savour (although that might be too buoyant a word for this scenario) in this narrative, and I would highly recommend it those who like watching people’s regular lives and listening in to different thought processes. We get to hear both the voices, in turns and something is endearing about both of them, especially since we see into their deepest likes, dislikes, thoughts and fears.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I could really connect with the characters in this book as I am a farmer's daughter and farmer's wife in Illinois. I smiled and rooted for this couple as they delivered that baby calf in that first chapter, and felt their frustrations with the drought and with Wally Oliver, an arrogant bigger farmer who claims on the radio that smaller family farms do not deserve to survive or to exist. To me, those are fighting words and Dimple and Ruthie took them that way as well.

While they are dealing with the bad news that Ruthie has breast cancer, they decide to take a little vacation and to go confront Wally. I am proud of their courage and resilence, but it falls on deaf ears, imagine that! While they are enjoying the rest of their time together, Wally calls and offers to buy their farm at double the market value. I could understand their sentimental value towards their place, after all, it's all they've ever known, but I can also understand them wanting to experience more out of life, something they cannot do much when the cattle need tended to all day, everyday.

Ruthie really frustrates me in this book and a favorite Lonestar song's lyrics run through my head "She says there's got to be more to life, I don't want to be some farmer's wife". This couple is in their 50's, and all the sudden, she's acting completely out of character and flirting with a stranger in front of Dimple. I understand her frustrations of wondering what life would be like off of the farm, but she almost takes it too far, using her cancer diagnosis as an excuse. It's a little too late in life to start sowing wild oats, something most of us would have done in our 20's if we had felt that need.

As they go through with the process of selling the family farm, they both start having regrets. How could they want to live in town when farming is all they've ever known? What would they have done for income? Dimple has a hard time wanting to sell the cows because a good home where they are properly taken care of is not a guarantee. It just goes to show that cattle farmers care for their cattle a lot more than most realize. It's not just a hobby, but it's a lifestyle. Things all work out for the best in the end and I am happy to give a positive review for this book.

4★
“If you are capable of acknowledging that you only live once, then you have to at least consider an easier option. Don’t you?”

OK, this one is the real deal. I have little patience for the rural romances that try to work some lessons about “the land” into their narrative to give them some semblance of credibility. They don’t. They come across sounding teachy and preachy (technical terms, I know).

Dillon “Dimple” and Ruth Travers could have been our neighbours when we were farming. Anderson tells their story simply and well. They run a mixed property with crops and cattle, and their two grown sons have left home for jobs in the city. But the boys love this place, the only home they've ever known.

It's the middle of The Dry, which I capitalise just to indicate it's a longstanding drought, not just a seasonal one. After 25 years on the land, both love what they do but are exhausted. The book opens with a scene familiar to me and with a radio broadcast equally familiar to me.

“Dimple helped 3027 to her feet. The cow was too heavy for him to lift, but if he held the base of her tail he could steady her as her weak legs wobbled and found their place. Alongside, her tan, soft-eyed calf probed impatiently, nudging the flank, his tongue like a long, flat, rippling leech, survival its only agenda.

There was a bloke on the ute radio saying confidently that drought could be a good thing because it removed the bottom rung of farmers.

‘Wally frigging Oliver,’ Dimple muttered to the cow. ‘Trust an Oliver to insist on survival of the fittest.’”

First, the tag number. That’s real. Some cows have names, most don’t. I could ask my son about 788, and he would remember the powerful, belligerent, stubborn red Droughtmaster cow who raised great calves but would charge a working dog when she thought they were too pushy. Fair enough, but when the dog jumped on the back of the quad bike for protection by us, it was kind of scary! Ah, 788. But I digress.

Second, helping to lift the cow by holding the base of the tail. It’s tricky, but it helps them find their feet. During drought, they get weak, and after calving, even weaker. But if you can get them up on their feet and feed and water them where they are, they can come good in a few days.

Third, the shock jock looking forward to weeding out small farmers. Yep. Let the big agro-corporations take over, big machinery, fewer people, profits – um – overseas investors? Or stashed away in the Cayman Islands? Great for the country – not.

So much for my own teachy-preachy moment. Ruthie is waiting for a medical diagnosis and decides she wants to take on this Wally Oliver guy face-to-face and tell him from one small farmer to one big farmer what she thinks of his removing “the bottom rung of farmers”.

“Dimple was quiet. This was not the sort of thing Ruthie normally did. But what Ruthie did wasn’t always normal, and when she set her mind to something, it was a big ship to turn around.”

They plan an overnight trip, travelling through parched country to a small town to stay in the local pub, and thus begins a change in the tone of their conversations. They are honest with each other.

“The horizon receded as the country started to flatten out. There was no green on the side of the road here. In places, there were bright-green crops in circles under centre pivots. The fresh, thick crops in an almost moonscape gave the sense of science fiction.

‘Always hard to like an irrigator,’ Dimple said, and meant it.

‘You’d do it if you could.’

‘Probably.’”

See? Honest. Dimple would love to be able to afford bigger, better machinery, (even irrigation – gasp!) and Ruthie would love to travel, go out for coffee, hit a gallery or two. But they make do with staying at the local pub in the small country down near Wally Oliver’s big landholding. Which leads me to the fourth true thing.

Fourth, I find that when we travel and stay in unfamiliar surroundings, we are often inspired to talk about different things, maybe open up a bit. The routine of home tends to fall into patterns, but new places spark new topics and all those what-ifs that we may have kept buried.

This is what happens to Dimple and Ruthie. The only part I found a little difficult to accept was how quickly the conversation changed and how the dynamic between them changed in one way but not in another. Were they going to drift apart . . . or not?

It’s a good story, well-written, and with characters I liked. I thought Anderson handled the tricky job well of getting into both their heads and telling it in the third person. Nobody is right and nobody is wrong, but choices are hard when the times they are a-changin’.

This is very much a story about these people, not some diatribe about governments But as I write this, during the world’s Covid 19 lockdown, I wonder if more people will be motivated to step up, like Ruthie and Dimple, to confront the greedy governments who have destabilised health systems and community services in order to support huge corporations and build an economy instead of building a society. Thus ends my own teachy preaching. :)

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribe for the preview copy I've enjoyed.

Ruthie and Dimple face not only a drought and the potential sale of the property that has been in the family for generations, but the very real possibility that there marriage could end. Finding out they don't really know each other as well as they believed they did for the course of their marriage puts Ruthie and Dimple on a journey that makes them truly examine their relationship and what happiness means to them.

Ruthie and Dimple have weathered many highs and lows over their decades of marriage, but a severe drought and the potential sale of their farm that has been in the family for three generations puts them to the test. Richard Anderson's novel is written with knowledge of what he speaks, as he has been running a cattle farm in northern New South Wales that has been in his family for two generations. This familial connection to the land plays a large part in what is important in love and life. The prose is naturalistic but written with great heart, and the two central characters come to life vividly, each having their due, presenting their own side.

This book was so good! The characters were so well rounded, you felt like you actually knew them! The plot was so good you didn't want the book to end!

“By mid-morning, the sun was out, hot and vengeful, lifting the moisture. In the humidity, Dimple wanted to drag the moisture back and push it into the ground. But you could only accept the weather, not make demands of it.”

Small Mercies is the third novel by Australian author, Richard Anderson. Ruth Travers has received a worrying letter from her GP. Maybe that distorted her reasoning a bit, because what she hears on the radio while helping Dimple with the cows on their Fresh Well farm has spiked her anger enough to act. Wally Oliver, a young, rich farmer with a massive land-holding, shares his (insensitive, to Ruthie’s mind) opinion that the drought will weed out the losers. (He later makes a thought-provoking parallel between the first peoples during white settlement and the failing farmers in today’s world.)

“Was it not enough for people to suffer drought without being told they should suffer? That their suffering was just part of an economic equation?” Ruthie tells Dimple she wants to tell this big farmer the adverse effects his words will have. She understands that “All big farmers believe in survival of the fittest because they think they’re the fittest, when really they’re simply the fattest. They can stand to lose a bit of lard.”

They take a break from their third-generation farm to travel to Wally Oliver’s farm near Willi. It might not have any effect, but it will make Ruthie feel better. As to her medical matter, Ruthie is momentarily tempted by the idea of denial, but acknowledges that’s not really her, though she can surely take a short reprieve from it before she has to act. Their time away starts with an angry mission, becomes a little vacation then morphs into something that Ruthie finds rather stimulating but just makes Dimple heartsick.

Anderson’s credentials as a second-generation northern NSW farmer lend authenticity to his portrayal of the farmer’s lot: he easily conveys the sense of it all being something between a balancing act and a guessing game, having to predict the weather and gamble on whether to plant, whether to buy or sell stock. “Optimism was all you ever really had. It was the truth of farming. You had to get up in the morning knowing that, someday soon, things would be better.”

The farmer’s sense of responsibility and care for his animals is clearly expressed when Dimple finds one of cows dead in the paddock; he counts the monetary cost but also “…he knew her. There were too few cows left for him not to know her: an Angus-cross with a fine coat and a neat udder, who always produced one of the better calves. She was a good servant: never the rogue; never the fence jumper; never one to kick you or rush you in the yards.”

This is not an action-packed rural drama, but a sedately-paced read, full of wonderful characters, evocative prose and topical issues – it is a read to be savoured. Anderson’s protagonists clearly care deeply about each other even if their communication is often less than ideal. They work well in tandem, having achieved a harmony and generally showing consideration of each other’s needs. Perhaps Ruthie underestimates Dimple’s perception of her emotions, but their banter is enjoyable and often laugh-out-loud funny. Particularly relevant and deeply moving, this brilliant novel is perhaps Anderson’s best yet.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Scribe