After three months of wandering on the other side of the globe, I arrived home one October morning to find that my front door had been kicked in by a large bird. This was my neighbour, who was standing in shattered glass on my doorstep, looking at me in a troubled way with his head on one side…
When Tom Pryce-Bowyer returns to his cabin in Queensland’s wet tropics to write a biography, he expects only forest animals to disturb his concentration. Then Tom is faced with another disraction: deflecting the quixotic plans of Jack, a former intelligence officer who wants to thwart the promotion of an unsavoury American general.
As he researches for his biography, he’s also forced to confront secrets about the recent atrocities in East Timor. A more pleasant distraction for Tom is Emjay, a New York publisher with whom he strikes up a whirlwind affair after their respective marriages break off.
To Tom’s dismay, his idyllic rainforest, and the life of his inquisitive neighbour – a colourful southern cassowary of mystical dimensions – both become endangered, and his late-blooming romance begins to fray…
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
Cassowary Hill takes the reader on a fascinating journey: from betrayal and corruption to heroism and altruism, from frivolous flirtation to tragic high romance, from metropolitan sophistication to Thoreau-like natural simplicity… With this novel, tropical nature is not a place in which to withdraw from civilization, but [one] in which human beings… rebalance the conflicting demands made on their lives by the contemporary globalized world. This is a newly emerging sub-genre of internationalist fiction, and David de Vaux is a fine practitioner of the mode.
– Stephen Torre, PhD, Journal of Studies in the Australian Tropics
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
David de Vaux’s writing underscores the importance of human-animal relationships. A deep sense of place brings Cassowary Hill into the reader’s experience, embodied by an allegorical shadow character in the form of a bird. Bird enthusiasts will likely enjoy the appearances of this odd avian companion, an unforgettable presence that invites us to question the sharp line between human and animal.
– Jessica Hardesty Norris, PhD, Former program director, American Bird Conservancy
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
“… echoes of Greene in de Vaux’s descriptive tour of exotic locales and themoral quagmires faced by his expatriate characters.”
– Kirkus Reviews
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
A captivating tale of intrigue that combines comedy and romance with a trenchant commentary on imperialist atrocities in Southeast Asia. … Its philosophical musings aside, Cassowary Hill is also epic in its scope and opens an important window onto the imperialist-led atrocities and human rights violations in East Timor. At the same time, it never ceases to make the reader aware of the connections between human-engineered depredations, both political and environmental, around the globe and the precariousness of human relationships.
– Meenakshi Venkat, New York Review of Books