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Cherrywood

By: Jock Serong
Narrated by: Elisa Armstrong, Phillip McInnes
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Publisher's Summary

From multi-award-winning author Jock Serong comes Cherrywood, an imaginative, darkly playful and deeply meaningful delight, a novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention.

'One rainy Friday evening in the winter of 1993, a taxi swept through the streets of East Melbourne, on its way from the city to Richmond. That year was one of the few remaining when a great deal was known of the world but not yet so much that the world had become over-known. Small gaps remained ...'

Edinburgh, 1916: A rich Scottish industrialist, Thomas Wrenfether, impulsively embarks on a mad scheme to build a paddlesteamer out of dubiously sourced European cherrywood on the other side of the world, in booming Melbourne, Australia. But nothing goes according to plan.

Melbourne, 1993: Martha is a clever, lonely and frustrated lawyer. One night, on impulse, she stops at a strange pub in Fitzroy, The Cherrywood, for a bottle of wine. The mysterious building and its inhabitants make an indelible impression, and she slowly begins to deduce odd truths about the pub.

From multi-award-winning author Jock Serong comes a darkly delicious, playful and rich novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention - Cherrywood is haunting, magical and a true original.

'A wildly imaginative, intricately woven tale of beauty, love and loss. Serong is an exceptionally gifted writer, and Cherrywood is his best book yet' Mark Brandi

'Beneath its captivating intricacy lies an exploration of grief, love and the haunting proximity of the past ... A work of exuberance, rare charm and, above all, heart' Lucy Treloar

Sublime and haunting' Toni Jordan

'As magical as it is mesmerising. Every chapter presents the reader with another storytelling treasure more narratively wondrous than the last. Serong's wild imagination is a gift that keeps on giving.' Trent Dalton

'What an adventure. This beautiful novel of ambition and grief has me feeling ghosts at every step' Tim Rogers

©2024 Jock Serong (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Cherrywood

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The story didnt quite hit the mark for me. However others have enjoyed it so….

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Lost the plot

I was disappointed with the overall experience. I listen to a lot of audio books and found the reader didn’t capture or change the voices of the characters, particularly Nan. Nan was an old lady in the story yet her voice was that of a young woman - the reader’s voice didn’t reflect this. As in other audiobooks, I think two readers would have told the story better and given more credibility to the cast of important characters. Towards the end of the book, I lost the plot, particularly with all the historical characters appearing at the Cherrywood for a meeting??? Didn’t understand the disappearing of the pub into the ether and reappearing. I think I enjoyed the first part leading up to the sinking of the Cherrywood and then it became somewhat confusing and I wanted the story to end. I didn’t like the ending and felt dissatisfied with the denouement.

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