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The Secret Son

The Secret Son 1

by Jenny Ackland
Paperback
Age range: 0 to 0 years old Publication Date: 01/09/2015
3/5 Rating 1 Review

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An Australian historian determined to find the truth, a stolen inheritance, a wishing tree, a long-lost grandmother, and an unlikely sweetheart come together in a dazzlingly original, audacious and exhilarating novel about love, honour and belonging, and what it means to be a good person.
ISBN:
9781925266160
9781925266160
Category:
Fiction
Age range:
0 to 0 years old
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
01-09-2015
Publisher:
ALLEN & UNWIN
Edition:
1st Edition
Pages:
336
Dimensions (mm):
234x153x25mm
Weight:
0.45kg
Jenny Ackland

Jenny Ackland is a writer and teacher from Melbourne. She has worked in offices, sold textbooks in a university bookshop, taught English overseas and worked as a proof-reader and freelance editor.

Her short fiction has been published in literary magazines and listed in prizes and awards. Her debut novel The Secret Son - a "Ned Kelly-Gallipoli mash-up" about truth and history - was published in 2015. Little Gods is her second novel.

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3.5 stars

The Secret Son is the first novel by Australian author, Jenny Ackland. James Kelly never knew who his father was; when he finds out, he wonders if he can have inherited the badness that must have resided in this infamous man. Fascinated by old Ahmet’s tales, Cem Keloglu decides to visit the Turkish village that his parents and grandfather left 23 years earlier. Berna knows that the arrival of this young man in her village will cause upheavals in all their lives.


Is it pacifism or want of a backbone that sees James going where he is pushed or pulled by others, staying almost by default? Cem is a rather dissolute young man, often shallow, shiftless and selfish, whose attaining of maturity is finally mentioned almost as an afterthought. The purpose of Berna’s twenty-seven years of suffering with Ahmet defies logical explanation.


Many of the secondary characters, in particular Ibrahim the taxi driver, Harry the historian, Mustafa the village chief, Lame Adar, writer/retailer/father Edward Cole and even Alphonse the marmoset are endowed wisdom, charm and appeal that is lacking in the three main characters, with the result that it is difficult to care a great deal about their fates.


This novel has the bones of a great story, with some interesting themes: the secret son of Ned Kelly; a soldier left behind at Gallipoli; the dramas of an isolated Turkish mountain village. Unfortunately, in the fleshing out of these threads it just does not make the grade. It’s a good debut, but due to poor editing, not a great one.


The story often seems to ramble on and some episodes drag on to the tale’s detriment: if this is meant to help draw the characters, then it could have been done more efficiently. The irony of the title and source of the novel that spurs on Harry’s quest is delightful, but neither the significance of the bridge, nor the reason a certain skull is buried nearby, is ever really made clear. While the potential of this novel was not fully realised, Ackland will be an author to watch.

Contains Spoilers No
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