Reviews

The Age

"She [Newton] has an exquisitely observant eye for those fragile tucks in behaviour that tell us more about ourselves than being in the full glare of the spotlight. This creates an emotional resonance and you care what happens to these people. ... History is always best-learnt from unselfconsciously Australian tales such as [this]."

The Bulletin

"Newton's book is a fine piece of writing. The characters come to life through a gesture, a laconic exchange of dialogue, a captured recollection. And there are memorable passages about their relationship with place: how Flinch learns to read the ocean, how generations have been drawn to the bay, how an ancient history inhabits the landscape."

Vogue Australia

"In keeping with its torpid climate, baked geography and isolated characters, Death of a Whaler has a stillness in the telling, which, like the moment before a storm breaks, builds into an event which unleashes such power that it truly takes your breath away. Newton is an exceptional wordsmith, and in Flinch she has created an altogether memorable character."

The Advertiser, Adelaide

"It is not unusual for the articulate novelist to rally to the cause of the inarticulate, and Nerida Newton has produced a sensitive, sympathetic portrait of a severely disadvantaged and depressed young man, frozen in a moment of tragedy that he can neither let go nor allay. ... a novel hearteningly different from Newton's award-winning debut, The Lambing Flat, but one which shares that book's best features: its assured underpinning of painstaking research, its clean, evocative prose and its shapely, satisfying architecture."

The Courier Mail

"...the novel is satisfying... It's clear that Death of a Whaler has been researched thoroughly, and the lyrical descriptions of the sea and the whales, are appealing. Extracts from Herman Melville's classic, Moby Dick, have been fitted neatly into the story. Over all, Death of a Whaler is about humanity and healing."

The Australian

"...Newton's ability to mine the gap between aspiration and reality, the settled and the unsettled, makes [the characters'] fate utterly convincing."

Sydney Morning Herald

"...Newton's limpid and invigorating prose brings something new... She is a disciplined craftswoman and a compassionate storyteller."

Woman's Day

"An absolutely beautiful story that deserves its major literary award and short-listing for another."

The Courier Mail

"Newton's narrative flows effortlessly. Clever use of metaphor and the ubiquitous themes of displacement and belonging allow the reader to immerse themselves in the characters' lives."