Foal's Bread. Gillian Mears

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I heard this novel being reviewed glowingly on an Australian radio book show and added it to my long #tbr list. Written in 2011, but set mainly in the 1920s & 30s, it is a beautifully written, rural family saga about horse jumping. It felt a little Grapes of Wrath to me 🤔. I thoroughly appreciated (rather than enjoyed) this harrowing, affecting #ozfiction.

Hooked_on_books Sounds good! But I have to say it drives me crazy when the author‘s name is SO much larger than the title. At least make them the same size! 9mo

MrsMalaprop @Hooked_on_books Yeah, weird right? 9mo

CarolynM Such a good book! 9mo

Reggie I loved this book and felt sooooo bad for the MC. 9mo

Rissreadswithcats This is one of @CarolynM favourites! 9mo

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Jeg

Foal's Bread | Gillian Mears

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Sitting outside in the relative morning cool I finally finished this beautiful story. I think part of me didn‘t want it to end . Having read her biography first shed a different light on this book for me I think. Knowing what I know about her life and way way too early death , even her acknowledgments made me tear up. I‘m about to search out 2 of her previous books.

Jeg Thank you @MrsMalaprop . 12mo

CarolynM Such a good book. So sad that she is no longer with us. I found a copy The Mint Lawn soon after I read this one, but somehow I‘ve never got around to reading it. One day…

The Mint Lawn

12mo

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Reggie

Foal's Bread | Gillian Mears

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😭😭😭Omg, Carolyn😭😭😭what kind of book did you send me? This family portrait of a novel takes place before WW2 and right after in the countryside of Australia. We follow champion horse jumper, Rowley Nancarrow, meet and fall in love with his wife, tough as nails, Noah. He moves her to his family‘s homestead at One Tree Farm and life happens and NONE of it is easy. But that doesn‘t take away the beauty of this book and how people go on. I 👇🏼

CarolynM

Reggie appreciated the love of horses you got in here from the author. And how in books a lot of metaphor in the writing comes from the subject. There were plenty in here having to do with riding and horses and I loved them all. I loved learning local words like fair dinkum, spruiky, chook, and skillion. Thanks so much for both books, Carolyn, I won‘t be forgetting Rol, Noah, Lainey, and George any time soon. 🐴❤️ (edited) 4y

LeahBergen Could you see through your tears to type this review? 😆😆 4y

Reggie @LeahBergen lol😢barely😢 4y

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erzascarletbookgasm @LeahBergen 😄 4y

erzascarletbookgasm Sounds like it‘s going to stay with you for a long time. 😢 4y

Cathythoughts Great review! Heartfelt ❤️ I love that. Did you read Too Much Lip yet ? ( I recently read it ❤️) 4y

Reggie @erzascarletbookgasm It‘s like I spent a whole 15 years with a family and grew up with them and went through their very hard times. There‘s also this part about a woman who works sooo very hard just to get shit on by the world around her that really upset me. (Sorry to be so crude) It was a good book. 4y

Reggie @Cathythoughts Thanks, Cathy!❤️ I have not but I‘m going to read a couple other books first and circle around back for it, but I know you, Carolyn, and Paula loved it which gives me great hopes for it! 4y

CarolynM Great review. It's an extraordinary book. I'm glad you..I was going to say like it, but maybe appreciate it would be better. I love that its bleakness is so matter of fact. You're never asked to pity these people, but OMG how could you not be moved by them? Too Much Lip is a much more upbeat book. I've got a glossary for many of the Aboriginal words in it. Email me ( munchenberg at on the dot net dot au ) and I'll send it to you. 4y

Reggie @CarolynM The whole beginning was shocking and really put you into the kind of setting and time we were gonna be in. When George was born I cried as she described how everyone, including the relatives who were set in sending him to Lassiter, ended up opening their hearts to the idea that this boy they were keeping was theirs and they would love him. When Noah saves Lainey from Owen and Noah‘s end. My heart hurt so bad for her. Thank you again for 4y

Reggie for the books and the offer on the glossary. But I‘m going to pass for the only reason that Paula sent me Potiki which had Maori in it and there were some great rabbit holes that I went down looking those words up on the internet. But thanks for the offer! Also, I was sad to hear that Gillian Mears had passed away a couple of years ago. 4y

CarolynM No worries🙂 It was sad that Gillian Mears died so young (she had MS) Such a loss. 4y

Centique I‘m so glad that you got such a lot out of this. Man those first few scenes - I wasn‘t sure whether to cry or hit someone! I liked the way that nothing was simple - villains were more complicated that just villains. It took her (Lainey? Im forgetting names) a long time to unwind the good and the bad and understand her past. What a family and what hard hard times. 💔 4y

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Centique

Foal's Bread | Gillian Mears

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Thank you for the gift of this lovely book @CarolynM 💕

This is the story of the hard scrabble life of an incredibly tenacious woman, Noah Childs, in the Australian outback in the 1920s and later on, her daughter. Noah and her father are mostly itinerant, part of a “gang” (rural term not org crime) herding animals across the outback when she meets Roley Nancarrow, a horse jumping champion.
Its a story with a dark heart, and it‘s confronting ⬇️

Nute I hope to read more literature from Australian writers especially about life there. 4y

rubyslippersreads This sounds really good. 🐴 4y

Centique The setting and the writing is vivid and visceral - you‘re right there with the horse sweating and the river rising. The characters are all toughened by their hard farming lives - some have hearts of gold while others are withered from within. The book is really about how those intense personalities can live with each other, find joy and passion or cope with tragedy and bad luck. ⬇️ (edited) 4y

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Centique The characters speak with a strong Aussie rural vernacular but as a Kiwi that wasn‘t hard for me to understand. I‘m not sure how difficult it would be for others - if you‘ve watched a few movies set in the Outback you should be fine! 🌟🌟🌟🌟 but definitely Dark and Confronting. Trigger Warning under a Spoiler in my next comment. 4y

Centique Trigger warning for child sexual abuse and harm to a baby. 4y

Centique @Nute I‘d really recommend this one about a modern Aboriginal woman going home to her small town

Too Much Lip

Centique @rubyslippersreads if you like horses it would be even more fascinating I think. I know nothing about horses! 4y

BarbaraBB Great review! 4y

Freespirit Great review! One to look out for. 4y

Reggie Sounds great! Stacked. 4y

Cathythoughts I love how you have written your review ❤️ 4y

Centique @BarbaraBB @Freespirit @Reggie @Cathythoughts Thank you so much 😘 4y

CarolynM I'm so glad you liked it❤️ I think it's one of the best Australian novels of the last decade. You've written a fabulous review. 4y

Centique @CarolynM thank you! It‘s going to stay with me, I‘m sure of that. 4y

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