English Passengers

When customs men seize most of their rum, Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his Isle of Man smugglers must hire out their ship, the Sincerity. The only customers are the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, who means to prove that Eden lay in Tasmania, and Dr Thomas Potter, who quietly seeks evidence that the island's Aboriginal people rank lowest among humankind. Alongside their voyage runs another account, starting in 1824, told by Peevay, an Aboriginal boy who grows up among colonial officials, sealers and settlers while his mother swears revenge on the whites. Nearly twenty narrators carry the strands forward until the passengers reach Hobart and the two cultures collide.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, 1820s–1870

First published

2000

Author's age

40 when first published

ISBN

9780385497435 (Nan A. Talese, United States)

9780241140680 (Hamish Hamilton, United Kingdom)

9780385497442 (Anchor, United States)

9780140285215 (Penguin, United Kingdom)

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Wikidata