Fat of the Land

'Morgan captures something essentially Australian.' HELEN ELLIOTT, SUNDAY AGE 'I couldn't imagine anyone handling such fictional country better.' MELBOURNE TIMES 'Other Australian writers have dealt with the slippery question of class distinctions, but none has done so with such even-handed sympathy for all concerned as does Morgan.' WHO WEEKLY 'Morgan's is an outstanding novel; it must be among Australia's outstanding books for this year.' BARBARA JEFFERIS, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD Fat of the Land charts three generations of South Australian merchants who move between Adelaide, London and their mining company in New Caledonia. The original partners are Thomas Rutland, a bluff Bedford farm boy with a beautiful voice and ambitions to found a dynasty and Robert Grahame, a dour Scot and pastoralist. We see his son, John Grahame, take over the reins of the growing empire and guide it through hard times despite the tragedies in his personal life, only to hand over to a man of the new breed, Victor Godwin, to whom the actual business of the company means little other than the satisfaction of his own lust for money, power and flesh. In a novel which sweeps from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, it becomes clear that even the best of business interests have their roots in exploitation, not only of natural resourcs but of the women who love the men at the top.