The Untold

March 17, 2014
Broadly based on the life of Australian “wild woman” Jessie Hickman, Collins’s debut novel ranges widely over the Australian frontier—and into one woman’s dark and damaged heart. It’s 1921, and Jessie’s past may finally be catching up with her: having just given birth to a premature baby and killed her abusive husband, the young horse rustler, former circus performer, and ex-convict is impelled toward distant mountains, where she hopes to find safety, and possibly her lover. That lover, a black man named Jack Brown, has, however, developed an uneasy partnership with a police sergeant who may have his own history with Jessie. The harshness of the human and natural environment, as well as the prevalence of death in the bleak outback setting, is underscored by the narrator; Jessie’s story is told by her dead child, speaking from her grave. “The earth buckles with the stories it holds of all those who have cried and all those who have croaked,” remarks the narrator, and, indeed, Collins’s poetic language and salty dialogue tell the story of a woman whose life is inextricable from the bleak landscape she not only traverses but also inhabits.

Courtney Collins scores a double win with her stellar narration of her outstanding debut novel--ideally suited for audio. The novel is a retelling of the Australian bush legend of Jessie Hickman, a woman notorious in the 1920s as a murderess and horse thief. Collins paints a much more nuanced and sympathetic portrait of Jessie as a resilient and sensitive survivor of abuse and oppression. The story is told from the point of view of Jessie's buried infant, and Collins's whispery, lightly accented voice lends it an intimate, haunting tone. The gripping narrative moves dreamily through time, smoothly weaving past and present, dreams with reality. This is a book that can't be set aside. Listeners are in for a truly exceptional audio experience. M.O.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine