The Untold
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4.2 • 10 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
With shades of Water for Elephants and True Grit, a stunning debut novel set in the Australian outback about a female horse thief, her bid for freedom, and the two men trying to capture her.
It is 1921. In a mountain-locked valley, Jessie is on the run.
Born wild and brave, by twenty-six she has already lived life as a circus rider, horse and cattle rustler, and convict. But on this fateful night she is just a woman wanting to survive though there is barely any life left in her.
Two men crash through the bushland, desperate to claim the reward on her head: one her lover, the other the law.
But as it has always been for Jessie, it is death, not a man, who is her closest pursuer and companion. And while all odds are stacked against her, there is one who will never give up on her—her own child, who awaits her.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Infused with impressionistic beauty and pulse-racing urgency, The Untold follows Jessie, a skilled horse handler and convicted thief, across the rugged, frost-covered terrain of remote New South Wales, Australia. After Jessie is released from prison, she finds herself carrying the child of a savagely abusive rancher. When a night of violent vengeance leaves the rancher dead, Jessie's only option is to disappear into the unforgiving mountain canyons. While struggling to evade her pursuers—including former lover Jack Brown, an Aboriginal tracker—Jessie learns to balance her wild-hearted independence and accept the kindness of strangers. Author Courtney Collins' lead character is drawn with depth and restraint, but her flourishing narrative (told from the otherworldly voice of Jessie's child) gives The Untold a haunting, spectral power.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Broadly based on the life of Australian "wild woman" Jessie Hickman, Collins's debut novel ranges widely over the Australian frontier and into one woman's dark and damaged heart. It's 1921, and Jessie's past may finally be catching up with her: having just given birth to a premature baby and killed her abusive husband, the young horse rustler, former circus performer, and ex-convict is impelled toward distant mountains, where she hopes to find safety, and possibly her lover. That lover, a black man named Jack Brown, has, however, developed an uneasy partnership with a police sergeant who may have his own history with Jessie. The harshness of the human and natural environment, as well as the prevalence of death in the bleak outback setting, is underscored by the narrator; Jessie's story is told by her dead child, speaking from her grave. "The earth buckles with the stories it holds of all those who have cried and all those who have croaked," remarks the narrator, and, indeed, Collins's poetic language and salty dialogue tell the story of a woman whose life is inextricable from the bleak landscape she not only traverses but also inhabits.
Customer Reviews
A treasure chest of words
I highly recommend this book, a beautifully sculpted read.