Picking up immediately where his first book, Call of the High Country, left off, Return to the High Country continues to
chart the adventures of the McLeod family and an assortment of other memorable characters
working the land in and around the Merriwa district of New South Wales,
Australia.
The main focus is on David McLeod and his wife Catriona, whose
courtship was a focal point of the first book. Following on from the death of
his beloved father (Andy McLeod, the main character in the first book) David
manages to shake out of his depression and sets about buying new properties all
over the region (and one further afield in the New England region of NSW) thus securing
his family’s financial future when times are uncertain for people working the
land.
It’s hard to not read this story, in which David buys
properties from people who’ve owned the land for generations, but with the
financial crunch simply cannot continue to make ends meet, and not think about
so many farmers facing that situation today. In the book, David, more often
than not, allows the families from whom he is buying the property remain, but,
sadly, in real life, that doesn’t happen.
Parsons’s book is a sprawling one, set over a number of
decades, charting the growth of David and Catriona’s children, and the
adventures they all have, both on the McLeod properties and elsewhere. There’s
plenty of romance and even a little action along the way, too. As happened with
the first book, I’ve come away with a much greater understanding of sheep,
cattle, and life on a farm. You can tell how much the land means to Parsons’ in
the way he writes.
If you have a love of the Australian countryside and enjoy a
good family saga, stretching over a few generations, then I recommend Return to the High Country – but not
without first reading, Call of the High
Country!
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