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Capricornia by Xavier Herbert
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Capricornia

$39.99

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Narrator Humphrey Bower

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Length 23 hours 33 minutes
Language English
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Spanning three generations‚ Capricornia tells the story of Australia's North. It is a story of whites and Aborigines and Asians‚ of chance relationships that can form bonds for life‚ of dispossession‚ murder and betrayal.

In 1904 the brothers Oscar and Mark Shillingsworth‚ clad in serge suits and bowler hats‚ arrive in Port Zodiac on the coast of Capricornia. They are clerks who have come from the South to join the Capricornian Government Service. Oscar prospers‚ and takes to his new life as a gentleman. Mark‚ however‚ is restless‚ and takes up with old Ned Krater‚ a trepang fisherman‚ who tells him tales of the sea and the islands‚ introduces him to drink‚ and boasts of his conquests of Aboriginal women - or 'Black Velvet'‚ as they are called. But it is Mark's son‚ Norman‚ whose struggles to find a place in the world, who embodies the complexities of Capricornia itself.

Xavier Herbert was born in Port Hedland, Western Australia, in 1901. He was educated there and in Fremantle, qualifying as a pharmacist. After World War I he travelled in Australia, reaching Darwin in 1927. There he worked as a railway fettler and visited the South Pacific, experiences that went towards his first novel, Capricornia. In 1975 he won the Miles Franklin Award for his novel Poor Fellow My Country. He died in 1984, aged 83.

Humphrey Bower is a gifted and versatile actor. Since obtaining a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature at Oxford University, he has worked extensively in theatre, television and audiobook narration. Humphrey won the prestigious Audie Award (US) for his performance of The Family Frying Pan by Bryce Courtenay, and was shortlisted for an Audie Award for his performances of Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan and Brother Fish by Bryce Courtenay. Humphrey's sensitive and intelligent readings are highly regarded and he is well-known for his capacity to perform a variety of accents.

Audiobook details

Author:

Narrator:
Humphrey Bower

ISBN:
9781742335179

Length:
23 hours 33 minutes

Language:
English

Publisher:
Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Publication date:

Edition:
Unabridged

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Reviews

"Big, powerful, irreverent...as timeless as the stars, as Australian as spinifex." "Capricornia will always be one of the greatest Australian novels, a defining work in the search for what it is, or was, to be Australian." "The best written and finest spirited novel that has ever come out of Australia." Expand reviews
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