Past the Shallows (21 page)
Authors: Favel Parrett
I
would like to warmly thank the following people – Vanessa Radnidge for believing in this book and working so hard to get
it across the line. I will never forget all that you have done for me; Janey Runci for the years of encouragement and inspiration.
I owe much of this book to your incredible teaching; The Queensland Writers Centre; the Australian Society of Authors; Julia
Stiles and Roberta Ivers; Fiona Hazard, Kate Ballard, Laura Drewe, Matt Richell, Louisa Dear, Clare Meldrum, Emily Brannan,
Brendan Fredericks, Heather Young, Dannielle Williams, Jodie Mann, Daniel Pilkington and the Hachette team; David Kneale;
James, Chiyoko and Haruki Parrett; Mum and Steve; Amanda Graham; Kim Bear; Robyn Bunting and Max; Edwinda Shaw; Jacinda Pfeffer;
Fotina, Kathryn and Siobahn; Angela Slatter; the
Joondo 8; the music of Gareth Edwards; and lastly, all the great writers in my writing groups (past and present) who have
helped me along the way.
About the Book
Past the Shallows
is a hauntingly beautiful story of the bond of brotherhood and the fragility of youth.
Told with an elegant simplicity, this is the story of two brothers growing up in a fractured family on the wild Tasmanian coast. The consequences of their parents’ choices shape their lives and ultimately bring tragedy to them all.
Harry and Miles live with their father, an abalone fisherman, on the south-east coast of Tasmania. With their mum dead, they are left to look after themselves. When Miles isn’t helping out on the boat they explore
the coast and Miles and his older brother, Joe, love to surf. Harry is afraid of the water.
Every day their dad battles the unpredictable ocean to make a living. He is a hard man, a bitter drinker who harbours a devastating secret that is destroying him. Unlike Joe, Harry and Miles are too young to leave home and so are forced to live under the dark cloud of their father’s mood, trying to stay as invisible as possible whenever he is home. Harry, the youngest, is the most vulnerable and it seems he bears the brunt of his father’s anger.
About the Author
Favel Parrett is a Victorian writer who loves to surf in the Southern Ocean. She was a recipient of an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship in 2009 and has had a number of short stories published in journals including
Island
and
Wet Ink
. Favel is currently working on her second novel. She has a passion for travel, especially to Africa and Bhutan, and in her spare time she volunteers at an animal rescue shelter.
If you would like to ask Favel a question or know more about the inside story of Favel Parrett and
Past the Shallows
:
www.facebook.com/pages/Past-the-Shallows/146189278778592
Review Raves
‘Parrett’s writing has a real voice, with power to evoke feeling, place and character. She is capable of refreshing narrative clarity, yet at other times surprises with an intense lyricism that is never self-indulgent. Everyone is put to the test, pushed to the edge physically and spiritually in a series of events and revelations that affect not only the characters but also the reader. This book is that rare thing, a finely crafted literary novel that is genuinely moving and full of heart.’
The Age
‘an extraordinary debut novel, part psychological family drama. Part mystery, part painful rite of passage, engulfed in the wild isolation and natural richness of the Tasmanian coast. Favel Parrett’s intimate understanding of this rugged heel of the world seeps through every pore of this book, especially her descriptions of the water, so vivid you can feel the chill and rush of the waves, the pull of the undertow and the ominous danger of the deep … Touching and quite beautiful, Favel Parrett is a fresh and vital new voice in Australian fiction.’
Australian Women’s Weekly
‘
Past the Shallows
reminds me of other Australian novels, such as those of Tim Winton, focused on our relationship with the unforgiving seas that surround us, and the wild landscapes in which we live … It is an impressive first book, with exquisite imagery and poetic writing’
Courier-Mail
‘
Past the Shallows
spins a beautiful and shining web of a cruelly dysfunctional family set on the rugged southern coast of Tasmania … This is one of the most powerful and moving books this reviewer has read.
Past the Shallows
, an amazing book by a wonderful writer – Cormac McCarthy meets David Vann meets Favel Parrett. Read this book.’
Sunday Times
‘One of Parrett’s great achievements is the way she captures the children’s voices: these narrators are, unquestionably, children rather than adult ventriloquists …
Past the Shallows
is an even, thoughtful book and clearly the work of a talented new novelist.’
Weekend Australian
‘Parrett has crafted a small gem of a story, haunting and alive … the beauty of the writing uplifts the reader.’
Who Weekly
‘Parrett … has created truly believable characters and her prose’s as powerful as a rip.’
The Australian
‘Favel Parrett’s debut novel,
Past the Shallows
, marks the addition of a strong voice to the chorus of Australian literature.’
Canberra Times
‘
Past the Shallows
will remind readers of Tim Winton, both in its concerns and in its evocation of wild places. Parrett’s prose captures the Tasmanian coastline and weather in all its splendour and unpredictability, and yet in its deceptive simplicity will not be beyond the reach of the younger reader. Like Winton’s
That Eye
,
The Sky
, Parrett’s debut is an uncompromising and memorable tale.’
Sunday Tasmanian
Suggested Discussion Points
• Aunty Jean is the only female role model the boys have left. She is at times cruel and caring towards them. Do you consider her a good person? Do you have any sympathy for her? What references within the text have led you to this opinion?
• Do you think George Fuller sees Harry as just another puppy to rescue? Or does he genuinely care for Harry? There are a few other works of literature that use an ostracised figure in the community to enhance our understanding of the main characters. Why do you think this can be a useful plot device, and do you think it’s effective here?
• This is a small community where everyone knows who everyone is, as we can see from Mr Roberts, George and Mrs Martin in the store. In light of this, why do you think the boys’ home life is allowed to continue? What is the role of men in this community?
• There’re few female figures in Harry’s and Miles’s lives. Is there any evidence of what they think about women?
• What would be some of the challenges of living here?
• How challenging would it be to be a woman in this community?
• Jeff exhibits increasingly dangerous and bullying behaviour: the staring, shooting the shark and risking hitting Miles, forcing Harry to drink. Does he bring about Dad’s worst behaviour to his sons? Or do you think Dad allows Jeff free rein to reveal his ugly nature? Do you have any sympathy for Dad? What is the evidence within the text that formed your opinion?
• ‘Harry stood there looking at the tooth in his hands, and he looked so young and small like no time had ever passed by since he was the baby in the room and Joe had told Miles to be nice to him and help Mum out. And Miles had thought he wouldn’t like it. But Harry had a way about him. A way that made you promise to take care of him.’ (
page 199
)
Both Joe and Miles are forced to take on responsibility for their brothers, yet they do it quite differently. Joe moved out with Granddad and left the other two behind with their dad when he was thirteen and then ultimately leaves the two of them forever. Miles however stays on even after he is beaten by his father. Why do you think they approach the responsibility so differently?
• Miles and Harry share an unbreakable bond. Discuss their different reactions to Joe leaving.
• Joe is also part of this family unit. Why do you think he is painted as one of the family, but also an outsider? He used to work on the boat, now doesn’t. He moved to live with his grandfather. Why do you think Favel Parrett chose not to include point of view from Joe? What effect does this have on the novel? What do you imagine his story would have been?
• The water throughout the novel is a metaphor for Dad. Do you agree or not, and what from the text made you think this way? Harry fears the water and Miles both loves and hates it. Is there anything within the book that shows us how this relates to the boys’ relationship with Dad?
• ‘There was something coming.
Miles had felt it in the water. Seen it. Swell coming in steady, the wind right on it, pushing. It was ground swell. Brand new and full of punch – days away from its peak.’ (
page 185
)
How does the Tasmanian landscape speak for the character’s emotions within the text? Are there other references to nature within the book that you found moving? Discuss.
• Discuss the significance of the shark tooth necklace.
• Memory plays a big part in this novel. Discuss the way in which memories are invoked in
Past the Shallows
and what part they play in the story.
• The gradual piecing together of Miles’s memories about his mother and the night of the accident have a sense of fantasy or dream-like state about them. Do you think these events happened chronologically? What makes you think that? Did they reveal events the way you’d imagined? What other possibilities had you anticipated?
• Why do you think Joe wasn’t in the car?
• Do you think Harry isn’t Dad’s son, and Miles and Joe are? Is it clear-cut? What references within the text have given you that impression?
• It’s obviously a point of rage for Dad. Do you have any sympathy for him? How did you feel when you learned through Joe that he’d disappeared and there would be no direct confrontation or punishment for his acts? Was this a satisfactory ending for you? Why/why not?
• ‘Harry’s feet hardly seemed to touch the ground as he followed Jake, and it was easy to run. He ran through the trees, reached out, and he could almost touch Jake’s red fur. George was up ahead. George, waving from the top of the hill.
‘And when Harry got there, he could see it all.
‘The land just as it had been forever – untouched.’ (
page 223
)
Do you believe this is a utopian afterlife image from Harry after death? Or do you think this is a fragment of unconscious dreaming from Miles? How did you reach this conclusion? Are there any other references within the text that have influenced this idea?
• Harry and Miles’s story is bookended between the evocative phrase: ‘Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark water – black and cold and roaring. Rolling out the invisible paths…’ What effect did the imagery and repetition have on you going into the beginning of the story? And on leaving the story?
• Although very evocative of the Tasmanian coast, do you think that the story transcends borders, and would be just as thought-provoking to a reader in another country?
Further Reading
•
Breath
by
Tim Winton
•
When God was a Rabbit
by
Sarah Winman
•
Jasper Jones
by
Craig Silvey
•
Brothers and Sisters
edited by
Charlotte Wood
An Inter view with Favel Parrett
with Tanya Caunce for tlcbooks.wordpress.com
Can you introduce yourself to the readers; what would you like them to know about you?
My name is Favel. A strange name I know, one that I hated when I was young but have come to like very much. I was always told there was an old English legend about a horse called Favel that you could brush and ask for favours. I do not know if it is exactly true, but in the way stories wrap around us, it has become part of my story.
I grew up in Tasmania, but have lived in Victoria for a long time now. Victoria is home.
Have you always wanted to be a writer or do you have an equal or greater passion for something else?
I always wanted to be a writer but I never thought it would be possible. When I first seriously sat down and started this novel, I knew in my heart that I
really
did want to be a writer. I still thought it would be impossible, but I kept going anyway.
I have done many things – been a postman, a DJ, worked in a bakery, failed at finishing my degree at university, travelled to lots of wonderful places like Bhutan and Zambia and Cuba and Kenya. I am passionate about many things. I am probably the most passionate about dogs! When I have time I volunteer at an animal rescue shelter called Pets Haven. They save so many lives every year. It is a place that means the world to me.