What separates great literature from cheap melodrama is not the grief the story contains, but whether the writing has earned it. Stedman lands every blow thanks to her patient accumulation of ordinary life, the shearing and mustering and fence-mending, the slow mapping of relationships that ensures each loss registers as something more than plot machinery.
Ticks through a chronology of happiness and disaster as inexorably as the old grandfather clock in the homestead ... Stedman is supremely adept at pursuing this theme, as she traces the tragedy of these endearing, painfully responsible characters ... Taking the sheep shears to some of the hind parts of this novel would have improved its pacing without sacrificing its power. But such is the nature of Stedman’s storytelling that I never resented her a page.
Carries a deep sense of place and a reverence for ordinary people living close to the land ... The setting is rendered with extraordinary care ... Stedman has a real gift for description, and her prose anchors the story firmly in place ... Remarkably, this is only Stedman’s second novel, though it reads with the assurance of a much more experienced writer ... There are moments where the plot takes somewhat incongruous turns, and a few resolutions feel tidier than real life might allow. The pacing is also a little slow in places ... Ultimately, this is an uplifting, moving and utterly absorbing novel.
Beautifully written and deeply moving ... Epic ... Descriptively rich ... Compelling ... The life created so vividly in Stedman’s masterful novel might be 'far-flung', but it’s also terribly familiar and achingly human.
Time and its fickle passing are insightfully examined ... The author’s masterful control of perspective, shifting between multiple characters as well as expanses of time and place, culminates in a remarkable, poignant tale.
This sweeping saga, told with great heart and tenderness, is a story of broken people working to heal themselves. The many admirers of Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans will find the same blend of sadness and hope in her latest.
Plumbs the vast Australian landscape as a metaphor for the depths of the human psyche as she considers the influences of destiny, loyalty, and remorse with ardent compassion.
A historical epic novel told in three sections, there was so much to love about A Far-Flung Life. I appreciated the attention to detail. I also appreciated the characterization of each person that was woven into the story ... A Far-Flung Life did not disappoint.
