Eucalyptus by Murray Bail

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Pages are sunned. Tiny mark on first preliminary page.

On a country property, a man named Holland lives with his daughter Ellen. Over the years, as she grows into a beautiful young woman, he plants hundreds of gum trees on his land. When Ellen is nineteen her father announces his decision: she will marry the man who can name all his eucalypt species, down to the last tree.

Suitors emerge from all corners, including the formidable, straight-backed Mr Cave, the world expert on the varieties of eucalypt. And then, walking among her father's trees, Ellen chances on a strange young man who, in the days that follow, tells her dozens of stories set in cities, deserts, and faraway countries.

Eucalyptus is both a modern fairy tale and an unpredictable love story played out against the searing light and broken shadows of country Australia.