The Lieutenant
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In 1788, Lieutenant Daniel Rooke sails into Sydney Cove with the First Fleet, hoping to advance his career. Instead, his life is unimaginably changed.
As a young officer and a man of science, the eccentric Rooke is full of anticipation about the natural wonders he might discover in this strange new land. As the newcomers struggle to establish a settlement for themselves and their cargo of convicts, Rooke sets up his observatory to chart the stars.
A young Aboriginal girl visits and begins to teach him her language. As they learn to speak together, they build a rapport that bridges the gap between their dangerously different worlds. Then Rooke is given a command that forces him to choose between his duty as a soldier and the friendship that’s become so precious to him.
The Lieutenant charts a unique moment when one world engaged with another, leaving both changed forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Grenville (The Secret River) delivers another vivid novel about the British colonization of Australia, this one a delightful fictionalization of the life of William Dawes, a soldier-scholar who sailed from England in 1788 with the first fleet to transport British prisoners to New South Wales. Dawes's stand-in is Daniel Rooke, a loner with a passion for mathematics and astronomy who makes a living as a marine. He joins the expedition with the hope of tracking a comet that will not be visible from Great Britain, building a makeshift hut and observatory separate from the settlement (largely so he can avoid his prison guard duties). Although food is insufficient and the marines are outnumbered by the convicts, there is little unrest, but while Daniel shifts his ambitions from identifying previously unnamed stars to discovering a language and culture unknown in England, tensions escalate between the newcomers and the Aborigines, forcing Daniel to choose between duty to his king and loyalty to a land and people he has come to love. Grenville's storytelling shines: the backdrop is lush and Daniel is a wonderful creation a conflicted, curious and endearing eccentric.
