Western Australia, 1886. As the pearling ships return to Bannin Bay after a long diving season, twenty-year-old Eliza Brightwell nervously awaits the arrival of her father’s boat. But when his lugger finally limps in, it brings with it a tale of tragedy: Charles Brightwell, master pearler, has gone missing at sea.
Immediately, whispers from the townsfolk point to mutiny or murder, but headstrong Eliza knows her father; she is sure he is still alive. As the Bay swelters under the heat of the approaching wet season, it falls to Eliza to seek out the truth behind her eccentric father’s disappearance.
But as she delves beneath the glamorous veneer of south sea pearling, she discovers that the sun-baked streets she thought she knew so well are teeming with corruption, prejudice and blackmail.
How far is she willing to go to solve the mystery and save the ones she loves? And what family secrets will come to haunt her along the way? Because the truth may cost more than pearls – and she must decide if she’s willing to pay the price…
Award-winning journalist and travel writer Lizzie Pook turns her eye to fiction with Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter, an exquisite historical novel about a daughter who will stop at nothing to find her father. As far as protagonists go, Eliza is impressive. She’s bold, headstrong and won’t take no for an answer. She alone believes her father to be alive when everyone else has given up hope – her brother included – and in courageous style, she sets off to find him, undertaking an arduous journey worthy of the most daring adventurers.
The story takes place in Bannin Bay, Western Australia. Though fictional, Pook took her inspiration from Australia’s early pearling hubs, bringing the town to sweltering, stinking life here. Bannin Bay and the islands surrounding it form a mesmerising yet unforgiving setting where both profit and peril lie deep beneath the ocean’s surface. The Australian landscape is richly portrayed throughout, with Pook skilfully rendering the sites, smells, flora and fauna of this wild new country where people flocked to plunder riches. Yet in bringing this period to life, Pook also shines a light on the mistreatment indigenous Australians suffered at the hands of white settlers, a subject she handles with great sensitivity.
Written in shimmering prose, with a captivating mystery at its heart, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is a gloriously rich and wonderfully assured debut that is sure to appeal to a wide range of readers, especially those who enjoy Australian historical fiction.
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