OUR REVIEW

Sara Brayden was born in Tanzania to English parents. Her father is a doctor, and her mother a nurse and all-round manager of their life. The threesome are inseparable as they travel around the rural areas of Tanzania to give aid and medical care to the inhabitants. Sara grows up astride two cultures; the European philosophies and mindsets her parents attempted to eradicate from their lives and the local peoples’ values, languages and traditions. Reaching adulthood, she discovers that she is not quite enough one or the other – too white to be native and too native to be European.

She meets new mining manager, Richard. Their courtship is beautifully described as it is interspersed with Sara’s love of the local land and peoples. Following a great personal tragedy, Richard and Sara marry and settle down to their conventional lives as the mine manager and his wife. It’s an important local position but Sara yearns to become a mother not just a wife. After many years of trying they cannot conceive without the aid of a donor. Richard cannot countenance such a thing happening, but Sara is determined to become pregnant and have the child she so dearly wants.

Scholes lovingly explores the African landscape and cultures. One Night at Silver Lake is a beautiful, thoughtful and captivating novel. Sara is a heroine who has stayed in my mind – honest, forthright, plagued with uncertainty yet driven by raw courage and curiosity.

From Africa to Australia, this is a literary trip well worth taking and enjoying.

Reviewed by Susan Gorgioski

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BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION NOTES

1. What do you make of the doctor’s suggestion regarding Sara and Richard’s fertility dilemma, and of her decision to visit Troy?

2. Do you think Sara and Richard would have been happy if they’d been able to conceive a child? Why or why not?

3. Richard is burdened by family expectations, and competition with others. Is this inevitable in family life?

4. In what ways is Sara’s idea of ‘home’ so unique, and why is this so?

5. Do you think James and Olivia were good parents?

6. Sara is taught by her parents that love and honesty cannot exist if you cut them apart. Discuss.

7. In the novel unseen forces are at work – they might be chance, fate, acts of God or the ancestors. Do you experience this in your own life, and how do you make meaning of it?

8. The role of women in different societies is explored in the novel. Can you see similarities in their experiences? How much have things changed since the sixties?

9. Sara and Evan experience a powerful connection during their one night at Silver Lake. Has something like this ever happened to you?