The second novel in A.E. Cochrane's Streetwise Series set in Melbourne. A young, chronically depressed man, mourning the loss of his girlfriend Chloe, a barmaid at the Young and Jackson, wanders the streets of Melbourne's Docklands. At Flinders Wharf the navigator and cartographer Matthew Flinders approaches him. Flinders is in a predicament and the one man whom he believes can save him is the French explorer Nicolas Baudin. Could the young man keep an eye out for Baudin on his wanderings through Docklands? So begins a hopeless yet fascinating search for the elusive French explorer. Along the way, the young man meets many historical figures, the namesakes of Docklands' streets and bridges. Through their stories he learns, among other things, of the poor treatment of women in the early days of the colony. The example of the fifteen-year old servant, Margaret Howard, repeatedly raped by her rich boss, is particularly harrowing. Encounters is the second in the Streetwise Series by self-published author A.E. Cochrane, following on from Three Thousand. Cochrane's lapidary prose brings to life a lost world of early Melbourne, with this volume concentrating on how women were often exploited and held back. Philosophical and witty, Encounters provides an innovative approach to the historical novel. Encounters, by A.E. Cochrane. Decision Press. $25 Comments are closed.
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