The Roving Party

In this debut novel set in 1829 Tasmania, John Batman is leading a roving party into the wild to hunt down uncivilized Aborigines for the Governor. He and his manservant Gould have conscripted indigenous Dharugs and criminals to help them in their search, because they know the bushcraft required to track them. Included is the Vandemonian Black Bill, a former member of the Plindermairhemener clan who was raised as a white man and a fierce fighter. While Batman is content to hunt down the dark skins, there is one in particular they are aiming to kill, Manalargena, the warrior and chief, and maybe even witch, of the Plindermairhemener clan. Wilson uses this group of morally corrupt men to examine a dark time in the nation's history. For all his brooding ferocity, Bill remains the moral center of the party, protecting even the lowest of men in the party. Yet the novel requires great focus on the part of the reader to glean any moral lessons from it. From the use of bare punctuation, in the style of Cormac McCarthy, to the obscure and unexplained use of 19th century names and language it becomes a tedious chore to trudge through the wilderness with the roving party. (Feb.)