The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea

In 1941, when his admired twenty-year-old cousin Rick left to join the army, Rob Coram was six. Geraldton and the sheep stations owned by his numerous relatives formed his world. The war, remote in place and interest, seemed hardly farther away than Australia—a country Rob had heard of without realizing he lived there. During the next eight years everything was to change for Rob. Rick came back from the war, disillusioned and restless. Rob himself began to outgrow the unquestioned beliefs of his family, yet realized with helpless love that much of what he was losing was to him most precious. Semi-autobiographical, yet not a self-portrait, this story of a boy growing up as part of an Australian clan in a small town and the country around it marvellously evokes a sense of the identity of Australia, its history and fate.