South of Darkness
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
A riveting story of courage, hope and extraordinary adventure.
"You will hardly read a more fascinating account of a convict's voyage to Australia" Australian Book Review
Thirteen-year-old Barnaby Fletch is a bag-and-bones orphan in London in the late 1700s.
Barnaby lives on his wits and ill-gotten gains, on streets seething with the press of the throng and shadowed by sinister figures. Life is a precarious business.
When he hears of a paradise on the other side of the world- a place called Botany Bay - he decides to commit a crime and get himself transported to a new life, a better life.
To succeed, he must survive the trials of Newgate Prison, the stinking hull of a prison ship and the unknown terrors of a journey across the world.
And Botany Bay is far from the paradise Barnaby has imagined. When his past and present suddenly collide, he is soon fleeing for his life - once again.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Outstanding children’s and young-adult fiction writer John Marsden injects his first novel for adults with all the energy and charisma of his earlier books. A rollicking adventure story, South of Darkness follows orphan Barnaby Fletch, who escapes the mean streets of 18th-century London for the equally brutal realities of the Australian convict’s life. Marsden’s first-person narrator is a curious and self-aware young man who pulls you effortlessly into his jaw-dropping saga.
