LIMBERLOST (Text 2022) by Robbie Arnott is a beautifully phrased, evocative love song to Tasmania, and to the struggles and simple joys of life there decades ago. Following the life of Ned, the story swings between his time as a boy living on his family orchard and intermittent glimpses of his later life as an adult.
I found the childhood sections the most compelling. Ned spends his days hunting and trapping rabbits, selling the pelts in the hope of saving enough money to purchase a small watercraft. His older two brothers are away at war; his father is still recovering from his own wartime experiences. His older sister reappears at the farm, desperate for news of her own beau, fighting overseas. Ned is not as sure and certain and capable as his brothers, or as wise as his sister, or as sensible as his father. His mother died when he was only a few months old, and his memories of her come entirely from the recollections of his siblings. But he is gentle and determined, thoughtful and kind. As he spends his days on the family farm, Limberlost, he reminisces about events from his past and dreams of what might become his future.
The sections about his later life, as a young man, an adult then a father himself, are sprinkled throughout, always with reference back to his formative childhood experiences and the cycles and symbolic nature of all that has occurred to him. Through work, friendship, romance and family loyalty, he discovers not only what it is to be a man but what it takes to be a good man. His mistakes are disheartening, especially when his intentions are sound.
Arnott is an exquisite writer and LIMBERLOST is a short novel where every sentence sings off the pages. As he explores life, loss, ambition, love and the seasons of the natural world, always with the threat of war in the background, he weaves an intricate, lyrical and deceptively simple tale of Ned’s childhood and growth. Immersive themes, brilliant characterisation and a poignant ending.