But, like most historical fiction, it starts in the same place history does: in the record of the past left to us in documents, oral traditions, buildings, landscapes and objects. Dawes has already started to document some of their language for which Elizabeth also tries to learn.

An ingenious tapestry of history and invention, A Room Made of Leaves is a novel of womanhood, motherhood, secrets, lies, obsession, transformation and the loss of innocence. A Room Made of Leaves is the internationally acclaimed author Kate Grenville's first novel in almost a decade.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Sailing for six months to the far side of the globe with a child growing inside her, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours. He tells her he is to take up a position as Lieutenant in a New South Wales penal colony and she has no choice but to go. The story unfolds in small chapter-fragments, their short paragraphs packed with gorgeous descriptions of the Australian landscape — “a slice of harbor rough and blue like lapis”, a stone overhang “with a fraying underside, soft as cake, that glowed yellow” — and compressed emotional power. In June 1789 he joined the New South Wales Corps and Elizabeth and their son Edward (born in March 1789) accompanied him when he sailed to take up his position in the colony.

How may we celebrate Elizabeth’s hard-won self-possession, however knowing or regretful, when it is conditional on the violent dispossession of others? Fact and fiction would overlap and allow a fictional woman of the past to do what would have been impossible for any real woman of that time: to put down in writing what she really thought. Mr Kingdon must have tried to offer some kind of irritating comfort, in which a reverend like him was well practised, because there was a sharp edge when she answered. Despite having no feelings for her husband she begins a new life there; one that will last until her death in 1850. Her only source documents in the book (the letters that the real Elizabeth wrote home to her family and friends) are recast almost as parody, with Grenville's Elizabeth explaining away how when she said she was 'abundantly content' she, of course, meant the opposite.

There have always been schemers and it seems they make schemers of their significant others too, despite themselves. It is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand that gives the past the piercing immediacy of the present.

The notion of not really getting the full take on current events, seemed as probable in events in that era. Alone to navigate her own destiny Elizabeth's resilience and probably her farming upbringing won her the respect of those around her with her many improvements and success in farming. I had been leaning up at the windowsill, listening in an idle way, not much concerned whether they saw me, but at that I sank down out of sight and crouched against the wall, making myself shrink to the smallest volume. Without any power over any aspect of their lives, they were obliged to go along with a social and legal system that equated them with children. At first I was intrigued, then I was enthralled, and by the end I felt as though Elizabeth had been a flesh-and-blood friend.Join the Women's Prize newsletter for a chance to win a stack of all 6 brilliant 2023 shortlisted books, and get the latest book news, author features and exciting competitions! I didn’t feel the connection- and while I admired her tenacity and drive in the face of a completely male dominated society- I wish Granville explored more of her inner workings - her fears, joy and sorrow. I felt him chuckle with pleasure when I got the knack of the little movement that made the milk hiss against the inside of the pail.