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subjektivna's review against another edition
5.0
While it is slow in the beginning, it is a wonderful book once you get into it and get uses to the pace of it. I have truly enjoyed this read!
cowboyvelma's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
claire_melanie's review against another edition
2.0
A bit meh. Liked it a lot at the beginning but the end was stooopid. Hate a story that nearly ties up at the end. It's like she didn't know how to finish it with any ambiguity.
jobatkin's review against another edition
2.0
I had high hopes for this book as it sounded so interesting, but didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. It took a long time to get anywhere, the characters had potential but lacked enough coherence to make sense, and the environmental aspects felt only half done as well. For such a long meandering story, the plot was still missing too much detail about The Hive commune for the rest of the story to really make sense, as it's such a central element of the background to all major characters. It's most strongly a story of loss - the loss of Pip as a young girl with leukemia, the loss of speech for her older sister Tess, the loss of memory for Evangeline her mother, the loss of his bees for her husband Stefan, the loss of his mother (never explained well) for her lover and neighbour Jim, and several others. There are some powerful scenes in the book, such as the opening scene of Jim 'rescuing' Evangeline from the river, and Tess's escape and return home amid raging floods to find her mother and newborn brother in need of help. There are too many holes and plot elements that go nowhere to make this book a real success though.
megantee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
‘Can you really hope to help or save anyone but yourself?’
‘The World Without Us’ is set in and around a busy town some hours north of Sydney. An alternative lifestyle commune was once located on the outskirts of this town. While the commune was destroyed by a fire some years earlier, many of the people have stayed in the area. The novel’s central characters are the Müller family: Stefan, originally from Germany, his wife Evangeline, and their daughters Tess and Meg. There was once another sister, Pip, but Pip died of leukaemia. Each member of the family is grieving her loss in their own way. Six months ago, Tess Müller stopped speaking. But Tess and her younger sister Meg are primarily concerned about where their mother, Evangeline goes to each day pushing an empty pram. Especially as Evangeline returns home dishevelled, muddy and wet. Their father Stefan, a beekeeper, has taken to drink and has other concerns. His bees are disappearing, and he doesn’t know why. A fragile family, marking time. Then Stefan makes a discovery on their farm. A car wreck, with its own secrets: the past is never very far away.
Making sense of this story, of the parts each of the characters has to play, of the past and of the present threats to the community posed by deforestation and mining takes concentration. The characters are only part of this story, the environment is important, as is the past. Consider Jim Parker, Tess’s teacher. Jim has tried to escape from his own problems in Sydney. As part of leaving Sydney in his past, he focusses on Evangeline as a mystery, as a puzzle to be solved. Jim knows that Evangeline was raised in the commune that was destroyed by fire: she bears the scars of that fire. Jim and Evangeline become close. Are they able to console each other? Can the Müller family survive? And what about the bees?
This was not an easy novel to read. I had to slow down my normal reading pace, both to appreciate the richness of Ms Juchau’s writing and to try to make sense of it. The central theme for me was of loss (life, lifestyle and nature) but there is also hope that the future could be different. If people want it to be, and make some changes. It isn’t only the bees whose communities can fail.
This is Ms Juchau’s third novel, and has been short-listed for the 2016 Stella Prize.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
‘The World Without Us’ is set in and around a busy town some hours north of Sydney. An alternative lifestyle commune was once located on the outskirts of this town. While the commune was destroyed by a fire some years earlier, many of the people have stayed in the area. The novel’s central characters are the Müller family: Stefan, originally from Germany, his wife Evangeline, and their daughters Tess and Meg. There was once another sister, Pip, but Pip died of leukaemia. Each member of the family is grieving her loss in their own way. Six months ago, Tess Müller stopped speaking. But Tess and her younger sister Meg are primarily concerned about where their mother, Evangeline goes to each day pushing an empty pram. Especially as Evangeline returns home dishevelled, muddy and wet. Their father Stefan, a beekeeper, has taken to drink and has other concerns. His bees are disappearing, and he doesn’t know why. A fragile family, marking time. Then Stefan makes a discovery on their farm. A car wreck, with its own secrets: the past is never very far away.
Making sense of this story, of the parts each of the characters has to play, of the past and of the present threats to the community posed by deforestation and mining takes concentration. The characters are only part of this story, the environment is important, as is the past. Consider Jim Parker, Tess’s teacher. Jim has tried to escape from his own problems in Sydney. As part of leaving Sydney in his past, he focusses on Evangeline as a mystery, as a puzzle to be solved. Jim knows that Evangeline was raised in the commune that was destroyed by fire: she bears the scars of that fire. Jim and Evangeline become close. Are they able to console each other? Can the Müller family survive? And what about the bees?
This was not an easy novel to read. I had to slow down my normal reading pace, both to appreciate the richness of Ms Juchau’s writing and to try to make sense of it. The central theme for me was of loss (life, lifestyle and nature) but there is also hope that the future could be different. If people want it to be, and make some changes. It isn’t only the bees whose communities can fail.
This is Ms Juchau’s third novel, and has been short-listed for the 2016 Stella Prize.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith