Overview

Oceania 1879. A family of settlers from New Zealand are the sole inhabitants of a remote volcanic island. For two years they have struggled with the harsh reality of trying to make this unforgiving place a paradise they can call their own. At last, a ship appears. The six Pacific Islanders on board have travelled eight hundred miles across the ocean in search of work and new horizons. Hopes are high for all, until a vulnerable boy vanishes. In their search for the lost child, settlers and newcomers together uncover far more than they were looking for. The island's secrets force them all to question their deepest convictions.

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9781785764882

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Reviews

Syson brings history alive * Observer * The writing is powerful, the events terrifying * Bookbag * Beautifully written * Guardian * Compelling story of politics, passion, bravery and love * Book Trust * This is a thrilling story about a corner of the world I knew almost nothing of. A story of love and courage, brutality and hope all told with equal measures of deep humanity, imagination and elan. Lydia Syson has an amazing gift of bringing history alive through richness of language, dramatic pace and fabulous visual imagery. This is better than watching a film! -- Anne Sebba

A thrilling story of love and courage, brutality and hope all told with equal measures of deep humanity, imagination and elan. Lydia Syson has an amazing gift of bringing history alive through richness of language, dramatic pace and fabulous visual imagery. This is better than watching a film! -- Anne Sebba With its chorus of vivid voices, Lydia Syson's novel reminds us why we consumed The Poisonwood Bible and The Underground Railway so avidly, but it has a (literally) breathtaking bravura and an intensity all of its own * Michelle Lovric * What a powerful, rich and fascinating book. Dark historical events are interwoven with the mystery of a missing child on a remote Pacific island in 1879. Highly compelling * Anna Mazzola * Swiss Family Robinson meets Lord of the Flies in Lydia Syson's superb and engrossing book. This scintillating story evokes an island paradise which descends into a nightmarish hell as Mr Peacock's Possessions builds towards a shocking revelation and a thrilling climax * Wendy Moore * Mr Peacock's Possessions is a wonderful book, full of drama, courage and aspirations. The language is rich and the characters so humanely drawn * Carol Drinkwater * This tense, evocative, richly-imagined novel conjures the voices of a strange time and place, and makes them universal * Emma Darwin * As compelling, mysterious and haunting as the troubled tropical paradise it portrays . . . Syson doesn't just write about the past, she transports us there. A tour de force * Piers Torday * Lydia Syson writes very well about the natural world . . . [and] the dark tensions in family life that overwhelm the Peacocks * Miranda Miller * Dazzling . . . A vividly realised, compelling novel * Linda Newbery * Mr Peacock's Possessions - one of those rare novels which keeps you up much later than you'd planned - is everything I love in a book. What starts out as a wonderful adventure slowly reveals itself as something altogether darker. Then you realise you can't put it down until you discover the truth. Swallows and Amazons for grown-ups * Alex Monroe * A gripping yarn with unexpected outcomes . . . Syson writes engagingly and evocatively * Morning Star * Syson brings history alive * Observer * Beautifully written * Guardian * The writing is powerful, the events terrifying * Bookbag * Compelling story of politics, passion, bravery and love * Book Trust * Syson's eye for character is immediate - her narrative voice reaching out from the page and grabbing the reader from the off. They're drawn into a small but compelling community, one full of interesting characters and complicated relationships that only becomes more intriguing as the book goes on . . . Syson brings things to a climax that's as rewarding as it is moving - and allows her to examine community, youth and family in a beautifully drawn setting * The Bookbag *

Author Information

Lydia Syson lives in south London with her partner and four children. After an early career as a BBC World Service Radio producer, she turned from the spoken to the written word, and developed an enduring obsession with history, including her family history. Read more about Lydia and her books at www.lydiasyson.com or on Twitter: @lydiasyson

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