Eucalyptus by Murray Bail

This is the third book I've read for the 2010 Aussie Author Challenge, and I had hesitated to start it because I had heard virtually nothing about it or the author.  Now I wish I'd read it sooner.  I still adore my Tim Winton, but I think I have a new almost favorite Australian author! 

First off, the word "subtle" kept coming to mind as I read this.  It's a simple story really, but beautifully told with a sort of sweetness to it, as well incidents of sharp wit that made me laugh out loud several times.   This is not a character driven novel, as the main characters seem sort of vague in hindsight.  The real focus is the plot, which is unusual without being pretentious or overwrought.  The story involves a widowed man who moves with his daughter to a ranch near a small town in Australia, bordered by a river.  He restores the property and begins planting hundreds of Eucalyptus, with almost no two alike.  His daughter grows up a beauty, and he decides that the only man who could be proved worthy of her would know the proper Latin name for each variety of tree on his land.  Thus the novel moves at an easy, river-like pace as suitors come and go.  We learn more about the daughter through her reactions than any actual description of her personally.  A few things happen seem a bit 'off' as read, but these are subtle foreshadowings of future events.

The descriptions of the location is beautiful.  All the more poignant to me as the part of California that I live in has a huge amount of non-native Eucalyptus that I've always despised.  I'm kind of liking them more now!   The simple lifestyle of growth and cultivation, and everyday hard work is appealing.  The writer's style is so subtle that much of the meaning is not said but implied.  He shows he's a great writer by exactly what he doesn't write! 

It's a great book that I highly recommended...