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- MacLehose Press
Australia, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Sexual abuse & harassment, Rural communities
An outstanding debut, lyrical and poised, steeped in the harshness and grit of rural Australia
Smithy is a retired shearer turned vineyard worker in his autumn years. It is hard graft, but Smithy has always worked with his hands. Physically all but destroyed after a lifetime of hard liquor, but now sober, he begins to see the world with new eyes, a meditative, singular figure in the town's bar on rowdy Friday nights.
But clarity can be a curse. Finally confronting his past, overwhelmed by long-buried feelings of regret, nostalgia and loss, Smithy steps in to help a young woman in a desperate situation. A cautious friendship develops, but Charlotte's husband is widely suspected of murder, and Smithy begins to fear that he will pay a high price for his gallantry.
Written with an authentic music, and infused with beauty, brutality and sadness The Vintage and the Gleaning is a compelling observation of men, women and country. A remarkably accomplished debut novel.
Jeremy Chambers
Jeremy Chambers was born in 1974 and lives in Melbourne. His first novel, The Vintage and the Gleaning was inspired by summers spent working as a vineyard labourer whilst at school and university. It was conceived over the course of a long illness, during which he was overwhelmed by unusually vivid memories.
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