Really good on multiple levels. History, romance, life on the land, anecdotes, humour. Loved it. ( )

I have to explain why it's very difficult for me to review and rate this objectively. Just after its publication, I worked as 'cellist with an actor friend on an adaptation of this book as part of the 'One Book' programme of the Perth International Festival of Art. The process involved reading it over and over and over... and over, assessing the dramatic, and musical, possibilities of each section: basically picking it to pieces. It's almost impossible, after all that slog, to remember my initial, spontaneous reaction.

That was a fair few years ago and so I came to this book club reread with some distance, but I knew in advance how it ends, I knew the shape of the story and I found myself conflicted. There are things that are so lovely, so sweet, so unexpected, so moving, and yet I feel just a little dissatisfied with the whole. Perhaps that's largely due to the abrupt nature of the ending. I felt as though maybe there were a few scenes missing that would have explained things, led to it a little more elegantly. I don't know.

Still. This is really very well written in the main. I love the direct, visual style and the wicked sense of humor. I know Carrie Tiffany has recently had a second novel published and I think I ought to give it a shot and see what coming to one of her works really fresh does for me. ( )

This is a fine first novel. Gently told, using the "show, don't tell" technique, the book seems simple, but I'd deceptively deep. I wished, at the end, that there was more - the plot and the characters could easily continue to grow. Read Oct 2013. ( )

It was a pure fluke that I happened across this book. Carrie Tiffany has won the inaugural Stella prize in Australia for her second book, Mateship with Birds. I checked my library to see if they had that book which I thought sounded interesting. They didn't but they did have this book and when I read the description I put a hold on the book. As it happens this is a book that fits into my occupation as a chemist in the Canadian Grain Commission so perfectly that I could hardly wait to recommend it to my friends.

Jean Finnegan is a domestic science graduate who works as a textile expert on the Better Farming Train that toured Australia during the 1930s to bring information to farming families about how to improve their farms and their lives. Also aboard the train is Robert Pettergee, a soil scientist, who can tell by tasting a sample of soil where it comes from. Robert is the author of a short article called "Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living" and he believes science can solve any problem. After a passionate encounter Robert and Jean quickly decide to take up wheat farming in the Mallee district. Robert believes with the application of superphosphate and other additives the poor sandy soil of the Mallee can grow wheat profitably. Jean will be his assistant and in particular she will bake 10 test loaves every year from the wheat harvest.

Tiffany is an agricultural journalist so she knows the challenges that faced (and still face) farmers. But she also portrays human relations and emotions with understanding. I found the yearly reports of Jean's test loaves wrenching, more for what they didn't say than for what they did. I think anyone with a connection to farming will identify with this novel and maybe people who haven't experienced farming will learn something about the life. ( )

What a sad, strange, beautiful little book. It's the story of a couple who meet on a Better Farming Train that travels across Australia giving demonstrations to remote farm communities. Jean and Robert both come from tragic backgrounds and after marrying they struggle to make a go of their own farm in Australia's Mallee region. I loved it. ( )