The Settling Earth
by Rebecca Burns
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Pub Date Dec 16 2014 | Archive Date Apr 13 2015
Description
Marriage transplants Sarah thousands of miles from home; a failed love affair forces Phoebe to make drastic choices in a new environment; a sudden, shocking discovery brings Mrs Ellis to reconsider her life as an emigrant — The Settling Earth is a collection of ten, interlinked stories, focusing on the British settler experience in colonial New Zealand, and the settlers' attempts to make sense of life in a strange new land.
Sacrifices, conflict, a growing love for the landscape, a recognition of the succour offered by New Zealand to Maori and settler communities — these are themes explored in the book. The final story in the collection, written by Shelly Davies of the Ngātiwai tribe, adds a Maori perspective to the experience of British settlement in their land.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781922200174 |
| PRICE | $15.95 (USD) |
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Average rating from 32 members
Featured Reviews
Anjali K, Reviewer
The Settling Earth is a collection of 10 intertwining short stories, set in the1800s in colonial New Zealand, focusing on the British settlers and their lives in a new country. Sarah has been uprooted from England and is living on a sheep run on the Canterbury plains; her husband William, too often visits the brothel in Christchurch; Phoebe is trying to stay away from abusive Oliver, worried that he will find her or their child; Mrs. Gray takes women's unwanted babies in for them; Laura paints in secret; and Haimona doesn't understand the way of the white man.
Each story is only a few pages long, but each of them are connected in some way, which makes for a very interesting, and creative read. I haven't read too many books like this, so it was really great to have the opportunity to do so. I really liked the way they did all intertwine as they did, including the last short story, by guest writer Shelly Davies, which concluded the book in such a great way.
While the individual stories are very short, it was written in such a way that you really connected (or didn't, as it were in some cases) with the character, and felt for them. I think being able to do that in such a short space of pages is a real gift. I don't read a lot of short stories (I think I had to read too many in high school!), but this was a really refreshing read, and even though I read it one sitting, it would be a brilliant book to pick up and put down several times and not loose the story at all.
I think another thing that I really enjoyed about it was simply reading about my country back in the day. We all do New Zealand history at school, but it was really nice to read about the people from those times rather than gigantic historical prose about who-knows-what. Burns obviously researched a lot (or knew her history well), and I could picture every place perfectly in my mind, as there were places where the characters walked where I have walked, or go past even now in 2015.
If you're after a set of great short stories, then do read this book. It will make you think, it will make you smile, and the last sentence will make you grin like a maniac.
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