Sadly, I could not get into a groove with this book. I would start it, finding it tough to stay with, would move on to another book and come back to it. On my third pass, I gave up. With all the lovely reviews, I find it hard to do this. Unfortunately I was unable to follow and connect with the characters.
I know Fiona McFarlane to be a wonderful writer and i will definitely continue to look forward to her upcoming works, this was just a miss for me.
My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Sun Walks Down
By Fiona McFarlane

Australia is a unique country with a history which is not unique at all. It is a history of European colonization and the oppression of the native population by the colonizers who believe the Aboriginies are a lesser race.

This is a story of a family named Wallace, who are trying to farm wheat during a period of drought, which eventually will wipe out wheat farming in this area of Australia. The family is industrious, but still living on the edge of failure.

As the tale begins, the Wallaces have five daughters and a six year old son named Denny. One day, as Denny is out gathering kindling for the fire, a dust storm swoops in and Denny becomes disoriented and lost. This is the story of the search for this missing child.

There are many characters in this book who represent the diversity of the populace at the time – native born white Australians; immigrants from Europe; fundamental Christians; Aboriginies; Afghani camel herders; even a Chinese settler. There is also a well-defined caste system.

While the story is ostensibly about the search for the child, it is also a study of the hardships the Australians faced in adapting to life in this beautiful but desolate and frightening land.

Sorry but I couldn’t get into this story at all. I was ready to stop reading about 25% through, but seeing all the glowing reviews I kept reading, hoping it would get better. It didn’t. About ¾ of the way through I started skimming, hoping it would have a satisfying ending. It didn’t. The story preceded slowly meandering around with no excitement. The blurb talks about a lost boy in the Australian outback and the weeklong search to find him. But probably upwards of 70 to 80% dealt with other characters, some of which were not even remotely involved in the search. The search occupied only a small part of the narrative and even then those parts plodded along at a snail pace. I know I am in the minority based on all the glowing reviews, but this story did not do it for me. The entire story fell flat. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fiona McFarlane's book, The Sun Walks Down, with its striking descriptions of landscape and the colors of the surroundings paints a background that is often almost ethereal. McFarlane does a sterling job of presenting a disparate cast of characters who, in the writing of a less skilled author, could be too many characters. However, the community of people who are summoned, or who volunteer to find the missing six-year-old, Denny, are diverse in opinion, emotions, and seminal beliefs. There are farmers, buskers, police, trackers, maids, mothers, painters, all of whom want to contribute somehow to the search for Denny. There is also an introduction of the indigenous locals and what motivates them, both good and bad. For non-Australians, there's a lot to learn here about the interactions between different cultures. The intercultural or multicultural community descriptions are both broad and deep,

The plot that centers on the search for Denny is an interesting one and well drawn. There is no straightforward direction for Denny as he hopes to get back to his mother, and he encounters a number of people who do their best to help him or who basically ignore him before there is a resolution to his search for home. Denny observes the sunset, dust storms, and the surroundings of the landscape, and he reacts differently to each change.

The book also concentrates on a vivid description of Denny's surroundings. We learn of gods, destructive storms, the various permutations and influences of the sun and the earth; McFarlane's descriptions are comprehensive and alternatively woven around Denny as he makes his way back and forth, hoping to find home.

It would be a hard to find a book with a more challenging group of diverse yet more inclusive characters, all oddly related to each other. Although some of the characters are not particularly likeable, they are supremely realistic and could not be withdrawn from the plot without ruining the core of the book.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Net Galley for the privilege of reading this book.

This is a difficult book to review because there is not a formulaic genre that categorizes it. I am sure the author has captured Australia in its earliest settlement years with accuracy and details that conjure the landscape and its inhabitants. I have no expertise that allows me to comment if this is not the reality of the times. The main theme revolves around a lost six year old who wanders away from his remote home during a sandstorm. With this beginning, the author introduces us to a disparate group of visitors, homesteaders, ranchers and searchers as well as his extended family. However, the plot line meanders and meanders and when it ended I felt I had missed something essential. What I was missing was that there was not anything I could point to and say “ I loved that.”
She captures the way of life and the families that suffered years of hardship as Australia was populated but that is not enough to create a recommended book by my standards.

a really gorgeously written book about indigenous australia. honestly wasn't really my type - i tend to shy away from historical books - but i liked this one more than i thought i would at least. i still struggled with it for that reason though, and had a hard time feeling invested in any of the characters (and there were lots to choose from...). while this book might not've been for me, its still a very objectively well-written book and i'm sure many people (probably smarter people, tbh) will love it!

Sweeping, majestic and epic. Fiona McFarlane's tale took me to a time and place of which I was not familiar. Told with many different viewpoints, the story was beautiful and ugly at the same time, and really attempted to paint the picture of 1880's Australia. Moving and touching, it's a story not forgotten.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review. This is a truly stunning work-- a sweeping tale of the Australian outback in the 1880s. The unforgiving landscape takes center stage as the characters search for a lost boy. The story is really a meditation on the town and the people in it as the disappearance does (or really does not) impact them. However, it is not an easy read. The writing is rich but also quite dense, and many characters are unlikable. The story is frequently unsettling in its depictions of the harshness of life, the small tragedies in the lives of the characters, and the ignorance and brutality showed to Indigenous people. Overall, it's a real masterpiece, though it requires a lot of hard work to appreciate.

a truly unique and exciting look into Australian history. In McFarlane's novel Six-year-old Denny Wallace wanders away and then runs from an enormous red dust storm. The book is then dictated by days and nights that he is missing. It' s 1883 and the colonization of the indigenous land is apparent and characterized through the views of the diverse cast of the town that assists with searching for the boy. McFarlane has brought life to an entire town and a disparate group of opinions, emotions and beliefs - one no more important than the other. In a lot of ways, the citizens of the town are the protagonist and the missing boy is just the foil. Still, as days past you will turn the pages hoping against hope that he has been found. This is a unique and exhilarating book! If you like beautiful literature, historical views that include multicultural people, or just want to take a peek at 1800's Australia, The Sun Walks Down is for you! #Farrar #TheSunWalksDown #FionaMcFarlane

in 1883 colonial australia, six year old denny gets lost in a dust storm and the whole community starts looking for him. his sisters, his parents, friends, policemen, indigenous trackers, strangers, and more scramble for signs of the boy as the days pass by and the outlook grows more grim. the long list of characters face the beauty and brutality of the outback and the desert’s unpredictability is a big focus. the pace is slow and the story very character-driven (personally not my usual cup of tea), but the setting and history were so fascinating it kept me reading until the very end. what’s unique about this book is how it’s not your typical missing kid story, normally we are preoccupied with asking ‘how will this child survive?’ and ‘how will they make it home?’ but mcfarlane investigates the different ways humans react and respond to crises of this nature.

I read and loved Fiona McFarlane's THE NIGHT GUEST when it came out--this novel was a tense and claustrophobic read that focused on the fate of just a handful of characters. Now here comes a book so different from THE NIGHT GUEST that I can hardly believe it's the same author--except that it's written with the same loving attention to human happenings, and I love it at least as much. THE SUN WALKS DOWN is that rare novel that succeeds in making the 'main character' an entire community, a whole host of characters with contrasting and sometimes competing values and priorities. The novel begins with a singular incident--a boy is lost in a dust storm--and uses this incident to braid a complex story involving human beings who happen to share the same geographic territory and historical moment. The author less interested in the kinds of questions that would preoccupy most authors who begin with the premise of a lost child--'will the child be all right?'--'will the child be reunited with his parents?'--and is far more interested in exploring how all of the characters she imagines in this book respond to the crisis, each in their own way. The last novel I read that succeeded in this very tough task of making me care about an entire community of players was BRIGHT by Duanwad Pimwana.

"This novel grew out of my love of the arid landscape of Australia's Flinders Ranges, which is littered with the stone ruins of the colonial farms and towns that failed to thrive there in the nineteenth century..."
-Fiona McFarlane

South Australia, 1883. Six year old Denny Wallace was sent to gather grass, bark and twigs for kindling. To find kindling, he walked away from the red hill, into desert country, and followed a dry creek. A kangaroo, running from the creek, piqued his interest. Denny followed. "To the north...a dust storm hiding the sun-Denny begins to walk, 'that's how he got lost; trying to walk home in the dust'." "Soon, things would happen. Men would call his name in the night; there would be blood on a handkerchief, and fire on the red hill." At first, when Mary Wallace couldn't see her son, she assumed that Denny had sheltered and fell asleep during the dust storm, however, "there are strangers in the desert: natives, hawkers, swagmen, stockmen..." and others.

The five Wallace sisters, Denny's siblings, were in attendance at a wedding in the nearby town of Fairly. Amid the swirling dust, Minna Baumann and Constable Robert Manning exchanged vows. Mrs. Baumann chose not to attend the ceremony since Minna did not marry in a Lutheran Church. Cissy Wallace felt "the terrible responsibility of loving and looking after her sisters." At the newlyweds wedding breakfast, she overheard conversation about the vicar, Swedish painter Mr. Rapp and his English wife, and the Axam family who ran Thalassa, a sheep shearing station.

The search for Denny by family, police and the community was compromised by occasional unwillingness, including the refusal to provide the best native tracker. It was sheep shearing season. "A lost child is the one thing [nonindigenous] people are most afraid of. It's the cost of settling on this country that they consider unreasonable." Matthew Wallace's catch phrase was "Let's be up and doing." "Cissy was not interested in happiness. I'd rather be useful...Happiness won't find Denny...".

"The sun was always shining here or in some other place; but only when it set above the red hill could the gods step out from it...They didn't like people to be on the hill, so they sent out warnings: a falling rock, a shaking in the ground...In the last few days the sun had been so red...[Denny] thought the gods must be angry...seemed to know he was far from home...they were hunting him...".

While the search for Denny took center stage, the beauty and brutality of the sun was showcased. Small wheat farms, such as the Wallace farm, had just been planted. Would [the seed] dry up or be eaten by grasshoppers? In the meanwhile, Matthew Wallace needed "to be doing". He picked up flour, tea and sugar in his dray, bound for stations in the north and returned with bales of wool to be shipped by rail. The wheat would thrive or fail. It was out of his control.

The European settlers arrived in 1840. They came to colonize. "There's no one here but the natives, who I expect to be no more than an annoyance and possibly quite useful." The settlers did not understand the challenging landscape with "it's pleated hills, and endless scrub and deep sandstone gorges."

"The Sun Walks Down" by debut author Fiona McFarlane is a beautifully written tapestry of outback settlers experiencing life in the harsh, strikingly vibrant landscape of 1880's Colonial Australia. A large cast of fully fleshed out characters outwardly show concern for the lost child. Did it really matter whether one was a "true Australian" while Denny was wandering in the desert? Shouldn't the priority have been selfless, the well being of Denny? Kudos to McFarlane for penning this magnificent novel!

Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Mary tries to see her children as belonging to God: only borrowed. She and Mathew have agreed, finally, that there will be no more of them."

This is the story of a six-year-old boy, in 1883 in Australia, Denny, who is lost and the whole town starts looking for him in different ways. The story involves his sisters, mother and father, policemen, trackers, maids, farmers and more who all explore their own relationships as the events unfold.

This story was slow for me in the beginning and the atmosphere felt stifling (I'm sure on purpose.) I kept thinking the boy would be ok but then worrying he wouldn't be. As I kept reading I got more and more attached to the characters and I really loved the ending.

A majestic story, beautifully told.

with gratitude to netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.