To Name Those Lost

Wilson’s (The Roving Party) second novel is as violent, bleak, and absorbing as his highly-praised first. Again the setting is Tasmania, this time taking place in 1874. The efficient plot could be described as the tale of two seekers, dogged and inimical, squaring off. Thomas Toosey, an ex-convict said to be “on winking terms with the devil,” is looking for his son, whose deceased mother he abandoned, to start a new life together. The Irishman Fitheal Flynn, “mad as a sack of rabbits,” is looking for Toosey, who stole a considerable amount of money from him, and committing a more heinous act in the process. As Toosey gets closer to finding his son, Flynn gets closer to catching up with Toosey. They all converge in the chaotic, rough-and-tumble town of Launceston, whose inhabitants are rioting in protest of a new railway tax. Wilson has a fine ear for dialogue and nicely sketches main and supporting characters alike, except in the case of a lamentably cartoonish Chinese innkeeper. The brisk tale doesn’t wade too deeply into the historical weeds, rather proceeding steadily to its final confrontations, inevitable but dramatic, savage but not gratuitous. This is a satisfying, grimy adventure about a reciprocal violence that pollutes. (Feb.)