RaveThe AtlanticThe simple plot of this novel—a woman and a man have conflicting goals, hers to preserve history by establishing a museum, his to institute progress by replacing a picturesque old bridge with a new concrete one—functions merely as a dummy on which the Australian novelist Kate Grenville drapes a gorgeous and intricate study of three characters … It's an amusing and moving story of unlikely love, but one could read it just to marvel at Grenville's astounding writing … Her sentences—deceptively casual in their diction and rhythm—peg every moment with exquisite and surprising aptness.
