The White Earth

An innocent boy is the focus of this novel, which highlights the tensions between the descendants of Australia's settlers and today's Aborigines as the sins of the past come back to haunt a new generation.William was not yet nine when his ineffectual father was accidentally killed in a fire. His mother, fighting demons of her own, casts him upon the charity of an unknown great-uncle, John McIvor. The bitter, childless old man had been brought up expecting to marry the heiress of Kuran Station - a grand estate in the Australian Outback - only to be bitterly disappointed by his rejection and the subsequent selling off of the land. He has devoted his life to putting the estate back together and now lives in the disintegrating, once elegant mansion. McIvor is obsessed with restoring Kuran Station and tries to imbue the boy with his passion. But recent legislation entitles native peoples to reclaim certain sacred sites, a threat to the old man's ambition. A terrible burden is placed upon young William as he uncovers dark secrets behind the original ownership of the land. Past and present merge in this cautionary tale.