Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

 Gemmy Fairley had been working as a ship hand when he became ill and feverish.  His shipmates put him adrift on a raft rather than risk the health of the whole crew.  Fortunately for Gemmy, the raft washed ashore on a desolate area of Australia.  He was found by aborigines who he lived with for the next sixteen years. 

One day while wondering with them, he spied some white men, whom he later sought out.  A family in the new community took him in and tried to help him re-integrate into English style daily life.  He had lost much of his earlier language skills and found it difficult to communicate.

What was happening with Gemmy was similar to what was happening with the English colonists.  Both were out of their element and trying to fit their old lives into their current location.  Gemmy had never had a 'good' nor 'safe' life and he didn't have the skills of how to live in a proper family.  The colonists were trying to recreate an English pastoral life in a totally foreign environment that was often hostile to their attempts.

I most enjoyed reading of Gemmy's life and his attempts to fit in anywhere.  He didn't find a safe place in England, not on the ship and even with the aborigines he was always an outsider.  He wasn't either a white fellow or a black fellow, he was something else.  I think perhaps that he was a lot of what was needed to for the transplanted English to survive in Australia, but that the whites refused to even consider the possibility.

Winner the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 1996

Winner the Los Angeles Times Award for Fiction 1994

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 1993

This is my 19th novel for the Read, Remember, Recommend Fiction Challenge hosted by Bibliobabe.