Presentation by guest speaker, Robert Horne
Come along and join us for Robert’s presentation about his book, The Glass Harpoon, which was longlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
“The Glass Harpoon” is a novel that takes place in South Australia in the 1840s. The story follows Matthew Larkin as he joins his brother James in building a new colony. Many people say that Matthew is not cut out for life on the frontier, but he is fascinated by the unknown and determined to make a life for himself in this new land.
According to a review by Newtown Review of Books, “The Glass Harpoon” is an earnest and unflinching effort to understand colonists as individuals who mistakenly believed they were working for the greater good. It casts a similar eye over the massacre of Australia’s original inhabitants, rendering their callous murders in confronting detail. This is an important novel about friendship and love, and about Aboriginal culture, frontier violence and the meaning of the law.