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SECRETS FROM THE DUST by [George Hamilton]

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George Hamilton

SECRETS FROM THE DUST Kindle Edition

by George Hamilton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

84 ratings

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Snatched from her family during the 1960s, Margaret, a headstrong Aboriginal girl, is fostered by the McDonalds, in the Australian outback, under the government sponsored assimilation policies. She stubbornly fights to maintain her culture until she can escape or her real parents find her. But soon she discovers that she is growing to like many of the customs and material possessions of her captors, throwing her into an identity crisis, which rips another fault line through her world.

By the time she grows into a beautiful young woman, she has already suffered the disappointments of unrequited love and a forbidden desire. Encouraged to hide behind the identity of a Southern European, the highly charged political environment of the time, and her love for a political activist, forces her to confront her true identity.

Print length

325 pages
Language

English
Publication date

October 7, 2010
File size

1233 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'Harrowing, beautiful and thought-provoking, Secrets From the Dust is an impressive novel from George Hamilton. With its shocking conclusion itdeserves an audience...'
--Shelleyrae - bookdout.wordpress.com

'This book was very hard to put down once I got started reading... Thisbook is very well written and the characters are so easy to becomeconnected with.I feel like this book will be enjoyed by many.'
--Lynn - readersfavorite.com and goodreads.com

'Secrets From The Dust is a well written book which pulls at theheartstrings... Thoroughly enjoyable read would recommend it to myfriends.'
--Rosemary - amazon.co.uk/dp/B0046A9V7I

'Secrets from the Dust more than lived up to my expectations... thestory has encouraged me to search for other stories of Australia...'
--Gretchen - goodreads.com/book/show/10155450-secrets-from-the-dust

'The characters in this story all form a connection with the reader. You don't just read this book, you live it, and that is due to the amazing writing of George Hamilton...'
Guta --murphyslibrary.com/?p=4012

About the Author

George Hamilton studied at the University of East London, majoring indevelopment economics. He likes to know what's going on around theworld, to delve into the customs and practices of different cultures,and this led him to Australia during 2002, where he spent several months researching Koori (Aboriginal) culture at the Koori Centre, Universityof Sydney, amongst other places. Some of that work is reflected in hisnovel Secrets From The Dust, which has been compared to The PoisonwoodBible, and will spark many interesting discussions for reading groupsand students of English literature. He currently lives in London,England.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0046A9V7I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Browsing Rhino (October 7, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 7, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1233 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 325 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,322,797 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #722 in Historical Australian & Oceanian Fiction
- #4,686 in Drama & Plays (Kindle Store)
- #120,899 in Historical Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
84 ratings

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George Hamilton

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George Hamilton likes to know what's going on around the world, to delve into the customs and practices of different cultures, and this is often a feature of his novels. His tales are based on people's intense personal or family dramas, with major social or political events strongly impacting their story. In addition to World Literature, he also writes multi-genre novels which include: Historical, Suspense/Thriller, and Contemporary. He currently lives in London, England.

Connect with George Hamilton:

Visit him at his blog: http://browsingrhino.com

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To get an automatic email when George's next book is released, please sign up at: http://browsingrhino.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Customer reviews

5 star		45%
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3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Max Tomlinson

Powerful family saga of the Australian outback during the turbulent `60s

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2012

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Secrets From The Dust takes place during the time when Australia, like many first world countries, was going through the social upheaval of equal rights. In Australia's case, those rights pertained to the Aborigines, who were treated as little more than non-persons at the start of the decade.

The story revolves around Margaret, a young Aborigine girl snatched from her parents as part of the country's assimilation program, and put into a dismal home for reeducation that is Dickensian in its harshness. The girls' homes were little more than factories for domestic and farm help and abuses were rampant. The opening scene is powerful, as is much of Margaret's plight, while her real family continues to search for her. She is adopted by an austere farming family and schooled by nuns who force her to act like a good white girl, although they make it clear the best she can ever do is marry `up'--i.e. as close to white as possible.

The characters are well-drawn and complex, from Anne, Margaret's foster mother, who harbors her own cultural alienation, to Sean, her distant foster father, with longings of his own. The setting is the barren outback where growing anything is a constant struggle--a fitting backdrop symbolizing the characters' emotional infertility.

This is moving, well-written novel that will reverberate with the reader. The imagery is strong and the descriptions of the characters' inner turmoil succinct and on target. My only issue with the book is that I felt dissatisfied by the ending, after such a rich journey with Margaret. In my opinion the last thirty pages were too ambiguous for a character as strong as her, although other readers may feel differently. The message I was left with was ultimately bleak, and I'm not sure that was the author's intention.

One person found this helpful

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katherine

Sad but necessary read ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2013

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Much is known and written about the genocide committed by the Nazis in WW II against Jews and others. American history documents slavery and the ousting of American Indian tribes. Before reading this marvelous book, I knew next to nothing about what the British did to the native Aborigins who inhabited Australia before they came. While this brilliantly intricate story is an education into that dark era in Australia's history, it could easily represent the identity struggles of any interracial adoptee. "Margaret" is both a powerful and fragile character. So many social issues of that era are woven into this story it's a history lesson. Racism, religious persecution, Vietnam War protesting from an Australians view, poverty, life in the Outback and of course female issues of rape & incest. I was fairly dissappointed with the ending because I wanted her reunited with her birth mother who spent a lifetime searching for her and I so hoped to read about a dreadful demise of Blythe. This book kept me up at night. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Juliette

Well Written

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2013

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It was a great pleasure reading a story so well done by an author who is adept with our language and clearly enjoys making the best use of it. Mr Hamilton presents a personal, internalized description of a policy the Australian government inflicted on its indigenous people through the experience of a young girl who is a victim of it. We get to follow this person from the moment of her kidnapping as a child through young adulthood when she finally has to decide who she is and which culture is truly hers. Not only are we captured into the story, but not once does the author allow us any distraction from it even for a moment or wander off on an irrelevant tangent of his own. I started to give four stars to this book. However, the more I think about it, this is definitely a solid five star pleasure. The premise, while a shameful historical event, is handled with integrity and clarity and very little judgment.

Helpful

Beautiful Language, Ugly Truth - Unforgettable!

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2012

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This book made me profoundly sad, dealing with an atrocious period in Australian history where native children were stolen from their parents to be forcibly assimilated. The first and last time we see the high spirited Snake-woman-child in her natural self ended with her kidnapping in the first scene.

They named her Margaret, erased her past and tried to transplant her into a world that did not accept her. They stripped her identity, maligned her parents, and replaced her affections to their ways. They told her she was not Koori (or Aborigine), but Southern European.

You'll love Margaret, and root for her, and cheer her on, hoping and praying she'd be rescued, or reunited with her parents, but alas, there came a day when she no longer knew who she was. How many times could she metamorphosize? How many skins could she shed? The author's descriptions of Margaret's surroundings, the natural beauty and harshness of the Australian landscape, evokes your deepest emotions, using sight, sounds, smell, taste and intuition. Haunting and mesmerizing, this is a story you won't forget.

If you read no other book this year, make sure to read Secrets From the Dust. It will change you and make you conscious against suppressing the spirit of life and to be in touch with your true self.

"Will they accept me if I just let them out and be me, whatever that is, because I'm not sure I even know anymore?" -Margaret/Ningali

22 people found this helpful

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Lynda Hester

Truly different and amazingly engaging

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2013

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99/100ths of this story captures the reader and opens the door into a world so different from what an American girl experienced in the 60s and early 70s that it is difficult to process this story is based on facts. Mr, Hamilton, what were you thinking when you wrote the last page? I was certain my Kindle book had been cut off before the end, but to my great disappointment, there was nothing more.
I loved the beginning, the middle and everything about the book except the end. With a more satisfying ending, this book would definitely deserve 5 stars.
Is it possible to rewrite and change the story? If so, then you should do it. Even if Margaret dies, at least there will be an end.

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Top reviews from other countries

ShonUK

Well researched, worth reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2012

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I like a story that can transport me to another place and time in a way that leaves me feeling I know and understand that place. `Secrets From the Dust' has done just that. The author has managed to weave into his story the social and political climate of the 50s and 60s of Australia. I now have a greater understanding of the mindset of both the native Aboriginals and the immigrants who tried to make Australia home, in both the Outback and the cities.
Parallels are drawn between the two perspectives and then merge in a single character. Margaret is stolen as a young child from her family and re-homed with a white family.
She struggles continuously through what remains of her childhood, her teens and into young womanhood with the desire to find her kin and remember their ways, and her increasing acceptance of European beliefs and aspirations. Sadly, of course, this leaves her constantly confused as to who she is, where she fits in, what she believes in, and who she wants to be.

The book is well researched and successfully colours the Outback as harsh and unforgiving to the newcomers who try to control it, and bountiful and nourishing to those who have lived on and understood the land for centuries.
The story is well structured and flows fluidly between scenes. The formatting is also good.
The portrayal of Margaret and those around her's evolving emotions and outlooks is thorough and the characters are well developed and presented.

However, as a reader, whilst I was sympathetic to Margaret, and even Anne, her foster mother, and their lives, torments, hopes, disappointments and decisions, I felt I was viewing them as a distant observer. It may be that I did not feel drawn into their lives because of the shortage of engaging dialogue.
Yet that too could be because of the isolation each character felt in their environment and the enormous expanse of the Outback. It certainly lent to a perception of minimal contact between characters.

This book is worth reading for the fascinating insight into Aboriginal culture and customs, and the effect of white supremacy, arrogance and ignorance on their people.

I was first drawn to reading this book by the title and cover.

One person found this helpful

ElaineG

wonderful reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2012

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This is the story of Margaret, one of the "Stolen Generation" of mixed race Aboriginals who were forcibly taken from their parents in the 60s and 70s and fostered by white Australian families.

The character of Margaret is a wonderful creation, you first meet her as a child and watch her grow into a young woman. She is believable, fun and likable - you really begin to care for her and hope that life treats her well. She is, in fact, one of the lucky ones - her foster family believe in education, they treat her like a member of the family, and really seem to care for her. She wasn't treated like a servant, beaten or raped as happened to many others. I absolutely adored the character of Anne, her foster mother, who in her own way had a lot of common with Margaret. Anne had come to Australia on the £10 assisted scheme in the hope of a better life wanting to make a good marriage. Finding herself stuck in the outback on the other side of the world to everything and everyone she had grown up with, her situation really was not unlike that Margaret found herself in.

We watch Margaret grow up and watch the effects of her new lifestyle upon her - does she cling to her roots or does she become "westernised"?

Running through the background of the story is something of a social commentary on the Australian political scene during those years, which give an insight into the way the Aboriginal people were treated and discriminated against, some of which makes for quite shocking reading.

The book is extremely well written, with wonderful characters, description and dialogue - it certainly is a book you can pick up and get totally lost in. Highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

Ignite

A brilliant read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2013

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This is the stunning story of Margaret, a mixed race Australian Aboriginal girl, who is captured from her family. She is brought up initially in a school which trains girls in domestic service but is eventually placed with an adoptive white family who have baggage of their own. It's a sensitive telling of a shocking tale, which respects the native Australians and their beliefs. Margaret chooses to be baptised, seeing it as a way to marry a white person and improve her own children's lot in life. We see her gradually change her views and try to emulate those who are successful in society. The change is a sad one, as she cannot be accepted, society's views being as they are.

This is a beautifully written, suspenseful novel and it shocked me in the same way the The Help did. It reminded me that people of differing race and culture had treated one another this way in my own lifetime. No doubt in places people still feel like this but thankfully it isn't considered acceptable by most of us now. I heartily recommend this novel. It's a brilliant read!

One person found this helpful

Anna W

Absorbing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2013

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I have just finished this e-book and found the story thoroughly absorbing. I would have given it five stars, but, unlike some reviewers, I did not like all of the adjectival phrases, some of which bordered on purple prose at times.

However, the story of Margaret and her struggles was an extremely good one and I felt the author had really grasped the difficulties she faced, the enormity of being taken from all that she knew and her eventual eagerness to fit in with the supposedly "civilized" world into which she was thrust.

As for the conclusion of the book, I will not say much in case someone is reading the reviews before the book, but I was not sure if this was left open for a sequel, or if the somewhat shocking ending was symbolic of what had happened to Margaret over the years since she had been taken from her mob. It has certainly left me thinking about what we could learn if only we listened more to the Aboriginal people and the knowledge they have acquired over thousands of years about how to live in that harsh land.

Tigger's Mum

Fascinating and thought provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2012

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I didn't read the synopsis and just started reading after a Goodreads recommendation. I'm so glad I did. The story was fascinating, the characters and their environment were so well described you could see them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

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George Hamilton

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