A Distant Land
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2. Zidra’s life is in turmoil for much of the narrative. Do you think she copes well with the events that overtake her? What do you think she learns from her experiences?
3. What role does George Cadwallader play in A Distant Land? Why do you think the author chose to write some of the book from his point of view?
4. How do Jim’s experiences affect his attitudes to war and to human-rights issues?
5. What is the significance of the Vietnam War to the narrative? Do you think any of the issues raised in the novel are relevant today?
Reading Group Questions: The Jingera Trilogy
1. Why do you think the author decided to situate the final volume of the Jingera trilogy in 1971?
2. In Stillwater Creek, the town of Jingera was the main stage on which the action occurred. This location expanded to include Sydney in the second novel, The Indigo Sky. By the last novel, A Distant Land, the action has moved further afield. Why are the characters so drawn back to Jingera long after they’ve grown up? What part does the small township of Jingera play in the trilogy?
3. One of the concerns of the trilogy is the effect of war on those who are involved in action as well as those left behind. Which of the characters bear the heaviest burdens of the wars represented in the trilogy?
4. Abuse is another concern of the trilogy. How well do you think the main protagonists deal with abuse in its various forms?
5. Why do Armstrong Siddeley cars last so long?
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Version 1.0
A Distant Land
Copyright © Alison Booth 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A Bantam book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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First published by Bantam in 2012
Permission to reproduce words from the T. S. Eliot poem ‘Burnt Norton’, first published in 1935 and later in Four Quartets, courtesy of the publisher Faber and Faber Ltd, England. Permission to reproduce words from the Judith Wright poem ‘All Things Conspire’, from A Human Pattern: Selected Poems, published in 2009, courtesy of ETT Imprint, Sydney.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Booth, Alison.
A distant land [electronic resource] / Alison Booth.
9781864711950 (ebook)
A823.4
Cover images: tree by Jason Loucas, Photolibrary, courtesy of Getty Images; flora by dpaint, courtesy of Shutterstock.com; woman by Elena Yakusheva, courtesy of Shutterstock.com; sky by Iakov Kalinin, courtesy of Shutterstock.com
Cover design by Natalie Winter
Internal design by Midland Typesetters, Australia
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