Into That Forest

Me name be Hannah O'Brien and I be seventy-six years old. Me first thing is an apology - me language is bad cos I lost it and had to learn it again. But here's me story and I be glad to tell it before I hop the twig.

So begins this extraordinary novel, which will transport you to Australia's wild frontier and stay in your mind long after you've finished reading. This is an unusual book. It's written as though narrated by someone with imperfect English, but although it's jarring initially, the story is engaging to the point that the reader becomes accustomed to it.

In a way, it's almost a fantasy novel. The events in the book are an amalgam of stories based in truth involving wolves, but with a Tasmanian setting. There are some liberties and inconsistencies that might not be obvious to a non-Tasmanian that further removed the story from truthfulness for me.

It's a folk tale, in essence, and I didn't feel an authentic Tasmania within its pages, although it is a good and unusual story.