Reaching Tin River

Thea Astley. Penguin Books, $8.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-14-014897-8

Aborted careers, a failed marriage and parental neglect drive emotionally needy outsider Belle to obsess over a long-dead settler named Gaden Lockyer as she approaches breakdown. According to PW, ``Few writers can equal Astley in conveying the physical, social and moral landscape of Australia, or in scattering dazzling imagery on every page.'' (June)

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