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When Eliza's father doesn't come back from the last pearling expedition and her brother can't tell her what happened to him, she is determined to find him.
But in a town teeming with corruption, prejudice and blackmail, Eliza soon learns that the truth can cost more than pearls, and she must decide just how much she is willing to pay – and how far she is willing to go – to find it . When British pearl-boat captain Charles Brightwell goes missing out at sea, rumours of mutiny and murder swell within the bay's dens and back alleys. Set in 19th-century Western Australia at the height of the pearl trade, this book paints a nuanced portrait of the era as the backdrop for a feminist epic. This was a wonderful tale with sparkling characters, a huge landscape, a sometimes violent seascape and the usual terrible racial tensions. I also think that the eerie Victorian era ambience could have been upped a notch, but that’s just a personal preference as I love the fascination with spiritualism in those times (I’m referring to one specific moment in this book, so if you’ve read it you know what I mean.As far as a historical fiction work goes, it rates high for me in that I learned a lot about this piece of history and also the pearling industry. When Eliza’s beloved father, the towns most successful pearler they have ever known, goes missing under more than just suspicious circumstances, the growing whispers and rumours start circulating and it’s not long before murder or mutiny echos off of everyone around Eliza. Western Australia, 1886 Twenty year old Eliza Brightwell and her family have lived in Bannin Bay for ten years now. A gripping, page-turning debut which follows the struggles of one woman’s ever-decreasing hope to uncover the truth about her lost father and future while having to battle to be heard, to survive and to believe that whatever may appear to be lost can always be found.
Set in Western Australia during the late 1800s, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is Eliza’s story. Eliza’s devotion to her family, despite the many flaws of Charles and Thomas, explains why she refuses to give up. Another firm fave was Laura-Min (a childhood friend of Eliza’s) who’s one of the most supportive people Eliza knows and whose resilience and survival despite the racism and misogyny she endures made me really root for her to find happiness. When the ship finally sails in near dusk, its flag fluttering at half-mast, Eliza is told her beloved father disappeared overboard sometime during the previous night and is presumed dead. Everyone believes he’s dead, except for Lizzie whose plucky spirit makes her undeterred in the face of negativity.Whispers from the townsfolk suggest mutiny and murder, but headstrong Eliza, convinced there is more to the story, refuses to believe her father is dead, and it falls to her to ask the questions no one else dares consider. Ten-year-old Eliza knows little of what awaits them on these shores beyond shining pearls and shells like soup plates – the things her father has promised will make their fortune. This is an astonishing debut from Lizzie Pook, Australian historical fiction set in the latter part of the 19th century with a memorable, strong and independent eponymous pearler's daughter in 20 year old Eliza Brightwell.
I knew nothing about pearling when I started reading this book, but not only does Pook's novel manage to weave a thrilling yet emotional adventure plot throughout, the historical context is illuminating and expertly handled. Eliza is an early feminist, who knows her own mind, not swayed by others, she has no intention of following the cultural rules and behaviour expected of women, although she has her own demons, she is helped in her quest by her friend, Min, who has to do whatever it takes to survive. Men only interested in money, and not at all concerned with the treatment of his those in his employ.
Where the author excels with her vivid descriptions of the dry Kimberly landscape, the community’s streets and residents, and the changing conditions of the sea, effortlessly evoking harsh heat, salt air and crashing waves. The stench of death is a part of this coastal town, with the butcher of animals, fish, birds, and sometimes the humans that are considered less than human. The pearl diving attracted Japanese and other Asians, although the power of the area was exclusively European.
They land in 1886 on the blood-red sands of Bannin Bay, a fictional stand-in for Broome — and like the real town, simultaneously cosmopolitan and isolated, over a thousand miles from the region’s capital. It’s set in 1880s Bannin Bay, Western Australia and follows the headstrong Eliza Brightwell (daughter of the town’s most prolific pearl catcher) as she hunts for answers behind her father’s disappearance. You were a good little liar,” Udo later tells Nico, and delights in the prospect of breaking the boy’s spirit, which is more fun and a greater challenge than killing him outright.There can be conflict, the president of the Pearlers’ Association warns the Brightwells, between the bay’s “Europeans, Malays, Manilamen, Koepangers, countless Japanese.
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