To Name Those Lost

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To Name Those Lost
To Name Those Lost.jpg
Author Rohan Wilson
LanguageEnglish
GenreLiterary novel
Publisher Allen and Unwin
Publication date
2014
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePrint
Pages297 pp.
Awards2015 Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction, winner
ISBN 9781743318324
Preceded by The Roving Party  

To Name Those Lost is a 2014 novel by the Australian author Rohan Wilson. [1]

Contents

The novel is a sequel to the author's 2011 novel The Roving Party .

It was the winner of the 2015 Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction. [2]

Synopsis

The novel is set in Tasmania in 1874, forty-five years after the events depicted in The Roving Party . Thomas Toosey is now sixty-years-old and has decided to give up his old life and search for his motherless 12-year-old son in Launceston.

Critical reception

In The Saturday Paper the reviewer JF described the novel as "There is a justice in Wilson's resolution of this dark and vigorous tale; though the ex-convicts don't escape the fatal shore, there is redemption for the next generation. Wilson's superbly taut novel keeps up its pace with spare punctuation and brutal dialogue in a vigorously drawn landscape feverish with the heat of a bushfire summer." [3]

David Whish-Wilson, writing in Australian Book Review noted that "Wilson's characters are not ciphers standing in for [...] broader social forces and themes. All of them are fully humanised, their motives and hopes and frailties convincingly explored," and goes on conclude "There is a purity of vision in To Name Those Lost's consistency of tone and relentless drive to capture the dark poetry of dangerous times." [4]

Publication history

After the novel's initial publication in Australia by Allen and Unwin [1] it was reprinted in the USA in 2017 by Europa Editions. [5]

Awards

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "To Name Those Lost by Rohan Wilson". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 30 March 2025.
  2. 1 2 "Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2015". Victorian Premier's Literary Awards . 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  3. ""Rohan Wilson: To Name Those Lost"". The Saturday Paper, 18 October 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2025.
  4. ""To Name Those Lost by Rohan Wilson"". Australian Book Review, November 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2025.
  5. "To Name Those Lost by Rohan Wilson". Austlit. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  6. ""Prime Minister's Literary Awards – Shortlistlist & winners: 2008–2023"". Creative Australia. Retrieved 30 March 2025.