Genre Fiction
![Fiona McFarlane - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B00DQG06E0.jpg)
The Sun Walks Down: A Novel
Short-Listed for the 2023 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
"The Sun Walks Down is the book I'm always longing to find: brilliant, fresh, and compulsively readable. It is marvelous. I loved it start to finish." ―Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
Fiona McFarlane's blazingly brilliant new novel, The Sun Walks Down, tells the many-voiced, many-sided story of a boy lost in colonial Australia.
In September 1883, a small town in the South Australian outback huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. Six-year-old Denny Wallace has gone missing during a dust storm, and the entire community is caught up in the search for him. As they scour the desert and mountains for the lost child, the residents of Fairly―newlyweds, farmers, mothers, Indigenous trackers, cameleers, children, artists, schoolteachers, widows, maids, policemen―confront their relationships, both with one another and with the landscape they inhabit.
The colonial Australia of The Sun Walks Down is noisy with opinions, arguments, longings, and terrors. It's haunted by many gods―the sun among them, rising and falling on each day in which Denny could be found, or lost forever.
Told in many ways and by many voices, Fiona McFarlane's new novel pulses with love, art, and the unbearable divine. It arrives like a vision, mythic and bright with meaning.
"The Sun Walks Down is the book I'm always longing to find: brilliant, fresh, and compulsively readable. It is marvelous. I loved it start to finish." ―Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
Fiona McFarlane's blazingly brilliant new novel, The Sun Walks Down, tells the many-voiced, many-sided story of a boy lost in colonial Australia.
In September 1883, a small town in the South Australian outback huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. Six-year-old Denny Wallace has gone missing during a dust storm, and the entire community is caught up in the search for him. As they scour the desert and mountains for the lost child, the residents of Fairly―newlyweds, farmers, mothers, Indigenous trackers, cameleers, children, artists, schoolteachers, widows, maids, policemen―confront their relationships, both with one another and with the landscape they inhabit.
The colonial Australia of The Sun Walks Down is noisy with opinions, arguments, longings, and terrors. It's haunted by many gods―the sun among them, rising and falling on each day in which Denny could be found, or lost forever.
Told in many ways and by many voices, Fiona McFarlane's new novel pulses with love, art, and the unbearable divine. It arrives like a vision, mythic and bright with meaning.
Editorial Reviews
"McFarlane's empathy, her delicious facility with language, and her keen insight into human nature, rendered in the smallest brushstrokes that eventually build into a complete picture, are all here, undiminished."
―Jennifer Bort Yacovissi, The Washington Independent Review of Books
"A mysterious and fluid vision of the country's Aboriginal lore, its ancient contours and its unpredictable weather . . . A beguiling novel, not just of ideas about history and place but of fiercely beautiful translations."
―Elizabeth Lowry, The Guardian
"McFarlane's figures emerge in intricate detail, defined by their petty desires, their moral imperfections, and their relationship both to the cataclysm of colonization and to the grandiosity of the landscape and the sun, which, for some, takes on near-divine significance."
―The New Yorker
"Masterful storytelling . . . We read on with queasy dread when the spotlight falls on frightened and exhausted Denny wandering farther off-course . . . But we also read on captivated by the novel's beautiful prose and polyphonic voices, and marveling at both its epic scope and rare intimacy."
―Malcolm Forbes, The Washington Post
"A thrilling success . . . McFarlane spins a novel full of mystery and wonder."
―Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"With this remarkable novel, McFarlane establishes her place in the firmament of Australian letters, reworking and expanding the imaginary of its early years."
―Claire Messud, Harper's Magazine
"A lyrical, polyphonic story . . . McFarlane peels back the layers of the whole community, showing us how all the many members respond―to the crisis, to each other, and to the mythic, desperate landscape in which they live."
―Emily Temple, LitHub (most anticipated)
"The Sun Walks Down is a revelation. McFarlane places her lens first over the disappearance of a small boy in the Australian Outback and zooms out, weaving the stories of the people involved in the search for him into a tapestry as richly imagined and fully realized as anything I've read in...
―Jennifer Bort Yacovissi, The Washington Independent Review of Books
"A mysterious and fluid vision of the country's Aboriginal lore, its ancient contours and its unpredictable weather . . . A beguiling novel, not just of ideas about history and place but of fiercely beautiful translations."
―Elizabeth Lowry, The Guardian
"McFarlane's figures emerge in intricate detail, defined by their petty desires, their moral imperfections, and their relationship both to the cataclysm of colonization and to the grandiosity of the landscape and the sun, which, for some, takes on near-divine significance."
―The New Yorker
"Masterful storytelling . . . We read on with queasy dread when the spotlight falls on frightened and exhausted Denny wandering farther off-course . . . But we also read on captivated by the novel's beautiful prose and polyphonic voices, and marveling at both its epic scope and rare intimacy."
―Malcolm Forbes, The Washington Post
"A thrilling success . . . McFarlane spins a novel full of mystery and wonder."
―Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"With this remarkable novel, McFarlane establishes her place in the firmament of Australian letters, reworking and expanding the imaginary of its early years."
―Claire Messud, Harper's Magazine
"A lyrical, polyphonic story . . . McFarlane peels back the layers of the whole community, showing us how all the many members respond―to the crisis, to each other, and to the mythic, desperate landscape in which they live."
―Emily Temple, LitHub (most anticipated)
"The Sun Walks Down is a revelation. McFarlane places her lens first over the disappearance of a small boy in the Australian Outback and zooms out, weaving the stories of the people involved in the search for him into a tapestry as richly imagined and fully realized as anything I've read in...
Readers Top Reviews
Peter Breinl
I loved how true to colonial Australian settings this is as I loved the other stories of Australiana I have read. So many characters wander in and out through its tale. I especially appreciate how many loose ends of people's lives were resolved towards the end. A heartwarming, well researched and beautifully crafted writing
Reader By The Wat
Tell me a book is “Historical Fiction,” and I guarantee you 1 of 2 things: It’s set during WWII, and/or the misty-colored cover features a woman in a dress or long coat facing away from the viewer. Not my go-to genre, but I still try them hoping to be pleasantly surprised. SUN was unique. THE SUN WALKS DOWN tells the many-voiced, many-sided story of a boy lost in colonial Australia. The writing is lovely (“The sunrise this morning is the soft but sturdy pink of a cat’s paw”), and the descriptions of the many (many!) characters were insightful and witty. “Minna is eighteen and ready for the world to be larger than her mother’s house— but not too much larger.” “Cissy will feel, talking to Mrs. Daly, that she’s a pail in which there is a tiny hole, and through that hole the best of her will trickle out, unnoticed.” It was an atmospheric but ultimately forgettable character study with too many characters. While each was fascinating, there were too many vying for my attention. It was a series of delicious appetizers with no main course. Thank you, NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, for a digital review copy.
EJGlag32583Reader
I was intrigued at the chance to get a sense of life in Australia in its own "wild west" days. Sadly, that social and developmental context was poorly sketched, didn't "come alive." With only a few exceptions the characters were flat, two-dimensional. The characterization of the lost boy--the entire focus of the narrative--was oddly inert. Weird and entirely unconvincing was his belief that certain people in the story were (literally) "gods." Yeah, yeah, he was six, but--that got old fast. Prose style was fine, best I can say for McFarlane's effort.
marthaStevieEJGla
Not sure my reaction nor emotion ~ contrived & a bit weird _ not for everyone yet good descriptions - thought provoking
