Whitcoulls Recommends: Saoirse and A Far-Flung Life

Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubuse. Saoirse is a successful artist living in Ireland with a lovely family and skeletons in the closet that she hopes will stay hidden forever. When she becomes the focus of attention after winning a major art award, her carefully constructed life comes under attack as her deception becomes known, and the public gaze sees only the extent of her lies and not the desperate need that drove them.

A Far-Flung Life by M.L.Stedman. The MacBride family operate a one million acre sheep station in Western Australia, where one day an accident on the property changes their lives forever and the resulting trauma leads to a terrible secret which could rip them all apart. Set against the vast landscape of WA, amidst extreme isolation, all they have is one another and a fierce determination to protect their way of life. This book is wonderful. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Joining me now is Joan mackenzie, Wickle's head book Buyer
book Manager. Good morning, Good morning, what have you got
for us today?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
The first book is called Sirsha by an author whose
name is Charlene Hurts you Bees, which is an unusual surname,
as is for some of us, the name Sirsha presuming
an Irish author indeed, and what calls We often think
that books are more difficult when readers aren't confident in
knowing how to pronounce the title. So I did some

(00:42):
research and I believe I'm accurate. Yes you are, and
I hope that it won't be off putting to people
because it's a really good book, which I thoroughly recommend.
That name Sirsha means freedom in the Irish language, which
is so appropriate for the character of the same name
who this book's about. At the beginning of the story,
she's living in Ireland and she arrives home one day
to be met with the news that she's just won

(01:03):
a major art prize. She's clearly a very talented artist,
and she panics, which is not at all the response
that you would expect to get when someone is given
that kind of news, And it turns out that she
needs to fly under the radar, and she's very careful
not to have any big public profile because she's got
skeletons in her closet which she's desperate to keep hidden.

(01:23):
In a previous life, she was known as Sarah and
she lived in the States, in Michigan, where she was
caught up in a very nasty, dangerous underworld which her
father was very closely connected to, and she had to
get out, and eventually she found the way to escape,
but the escape itself was really perilous, and on the
flight to Ireland, she's going off to a country where

(01:45):
she knew nobody, had nothing, but just had to get away.
She was sitting next to a guy. They started up
a conversation. He said where he is staying? She said,
I don't know. He said, we'll come home. My family
can put you up for a while. And from that
point she started to build a new life. But some
years later, after winning this prize, she really does become
the focus of attention and this really careful, fully constructed

(02:07):
life that she's put together with all of this, deception
comes under attack and people see only the extent of
the lies, but not the desperate need she had which
brought them in the first place.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Okay, interesting, tell me about a Far Flung Life by M. L. Steadman.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
This is truly wonderful. Some years ago M. L. Steedman
wrote a best selling book called The Light Between Oceans. Oh, yes,
you might remember it. At the time it was a
whitker's favorite and it was about a baby which washed
up on a really remote beach. That's right, right, Well,
A Far Fung Life is also a very remote location
and it also has a baby. It's set in Western

(02:45):
Australia beginning in nineteen fifty eight, and the McBride family
have a one million acre sheep station and so they're all,
of course actively engaged in the life of the farm.
Phil and Laurna McBride are the parents, and they've got
three kids. And one day the men are out moving
a load of sheep and they swerve to avoid a
kangaroo on a really bad road and Phil and his

(03:05):
eldest son killed, while Matt, who's the youngest son, gets
this life changing head injury and the resulting trauma leads
to a terrible secret which could rip the entire family apart.
And don't forget, the isolation that they live in is
simply extreme. So they're out there on their own with
this thing going on in the background. Rose the sister,

(03:26):
Matt's sister, eventually leaves home. She goes to work in
other places around Wa and when she eventually comes back,
she's got a baby in tow, but she won't disclose
the origins of it. These characters are just terrific. The
expanse of this book, you know, the Wa landscape and
the huge sky and the isolation and the sense of
extremes and all of those things play very much into

(03:50):
the real background sense of landscape in this book. Again
with this family who are doing their very very best
to hold it all together.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Sounds like beautiful, strong imagery that we can all imagine everything.
It's marvelous, oh wonderful. Okay. So the first book was
Sirsha by Charlene Hurtebus and the second book was A
Far Flung Life by M. L. Stiadman. Thank you so much, Joan.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
See you next week.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio