Sarah Kanake
In 1986, the year the Tasmanian tiger is officially declared extinct, fourteen-year-old Samson and his twin brother Jonah travel from the Sunshine Coast to the wild back country of west Tasmania to live on a mountain with a granddad they’ve never met.
Clancy is a beat-up old man who breaks brumbies, hunts tigers, and has spent four years hunting for his missing daughter, River. The resentful, brooding Jonah, and sunny-tempered Samson, who has Down syndrome, feel very lost. The mountain isn’t their home but they become entranced, in different ways, with their surroundings. While Samson finds delight all around, Jonah develops a dark obsession that ties in with Clancy’s desire to bring River home. There’s something out there in the bush, something that seems set on tearing this family to pieces.
Sing Fox to Me is a story built from lost and stolen children, Tasmanian tigers, missing animals, Down syndrome and parents who run away. It is the symphony of three howling male voices, each hoping to find the right pack and live comfortably in their own skin.
Theresa on Goodreads wrote:The Tasmanian bush, dark and mysterious.
A distraught grandfather, a deceased wife, a long-lost daughter, twin teenage grandsons, one with Down Syndrome, one goes missing.
Tasmanian tigers!
A wonderful story, sad and strange.
I was sorry when it ended.
A gripping page turner that filled me with a sense of dread about the bad things that might happen. And they do. The character of Samson, a teenage boy with Down Syndrome, is really well developed. The other characters are hard to connect with - also why they all have trouble connecting with each other. A novel about loss, searching, and silences which blurs the boundaries between reality and hallucination, between people and their environment, between past and present. There is a lot going on in the plot but I wanted a little bit more from some of the relationships. This is a 3.5 star book for me.
Leave a Reply