About the Book:
Alice is only nine years old in 1910 when she is sent to the feared Coast Hospital lazaret at Little Bay in Sydney, a veritable prison where more patients are admitted than will ever leave. She is told that she's visiting her mother, who disappeared one day when Alice was two. Once there, Alice learns her mother is suffering from leprosy and that she has the same disease.
As she grows up, the secluded refuge of the lazaret becomes Alice's entire world, her mother and the other patients and medical staff her only human contact. The patients have access to a private sandstone-edged beach, their own rowboat, a piano and a library of books, but Alice is tired of the smallness of her life and is thrilled by the thought of the outside world. It is only when Guy, a Yuwaalaraay man wounded in World War I, arrives at The Coast, that Alice begins to experience what she has yearned for, as they become friends and then something deeper.
Filled with vivid descriptions of the wild beauty of the sea cliffs and beaches surrounding the harsh isolation of the lazaret, and written in evocative prose, The Coast is meticulously researched historical fiction that holds a mirror to the present day. Heartbreaking and soul-lifting, it is a universal story of love, courage, sacrifice and resilience.
Published by Allen & Unwin
Released May 2022
My Thoughts:
Eleanor Limprecht writes Australian historical fiction with such meticulous attention to detail, also choosing areas of history that many may know very little about. The laws within Australia at the beginning of the 20th century regarding people who were suffering from leprosy were harsh, condemning them to isolation and stigma, going so far as to even forcing a person to change their name to 'save their family from the shame'. Evidence emerging that leprosy was not as contagious as previously believed was kept under the radar, leading to the continued persecution of sufferers for far too long.
The Coast is not only a story about those labelled as 'lepers'. It's also about the ways in which Australia, from colonial times through Federation, persecuted anyone who was different - culturally, racially, sexually, medically; the list could go on. The story is told from multiple perspectives, each character bearing their 'difference' and telling the story of who they are and how they came to be at the lazaret. It's a sad story, a shameful part of history, but it's told with such empathy and honesty, along with a sense of vivid purpose and atmospheric conjuring of the setting and the era.
I listened to this one and can highly recommend the audio version, it was beautifully narrated, with pitch perfect emotion. Another excellent historical fiction release by Eleanor Limprecht.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy. (I listened to the audio version but received a print version for review.)
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