Shallows, the Miles Franklin Award winning novel written by esteemed Australian author Tim Winton, catalogs in emotional and descriptive detail the historical and contemporary events in the whale and whaling industries in Albany, Western Australia.
Told through the lens of three generations of the same local family, Shallows as a novel reverts constantly back to the height of whaling in the 1830’s, depicting the whaler Nathaniel Coupar in his day-to-day role as whaler and seaman, facing the fierce oceanic cold, constant deluge of water and loneliness, and the heavy responsibility as breadwinner of the family. Shallows then forwards to descendants Queenie and Cleveland Cookson, a young couple in the height of their young love and in the midst of the shifting paradigms of the 1970s.
The fiery and independant Queenie finds the perfect outlet for her rebelliousness and intense compassion in the Greenpeace movement that arrives in town, led by a suave and ambitious Frenchman...soon protests are organised under the cover of secrecy, to be brought alive in dramatic and dangerous shows of defiance, and ending with the closure of the whaling station, once the backbone of the town’s economy.
Shallows closes on a final generation of Coupars, set in the modern day. An addition to the novel, we see Nathanial’s descendant rallying against whaling. Working for a conservation organisation, our final Coupar now fights to preserve whales against slaughter using direct action: confronting whalers head-on, out in the ocean. This final chapter in the story represents Australia’s modern anti-whaling stance and forms a striking parallel with the whaling community of their forebears.
Told through the lens of three generations of the same local family, Shallows as a novel reverts constantly back to the height of whaling in the 1830’s, depicting the whaler Nathaniel Coupar in his day-to-day role as whaler and seaman, facing the fierce oceanic cold, constant deluge of water and loneliness, and the heavy responsibility as breadwinner of the family. Shallows then forwards to descendants Queenie and Cleveland Cookson, a young couple in the height of their young love and in the midst of the shifting paradigms of the 1970s.
The fiery and independant Queenie finds the perfect outlet for her rebelliousness and intense compassion in the Greenpeace movement that arrives in town, led by a suave and ambitious Frenchman...soon protests are organised under the cover of secrecy, to be brought alive in dramatic and dangerous shows of defiance, and ending with the closure of the whaling station, once the backbone of the town’s economy.
Shallows closes on a final generation of Coupars, set in the modern day. An addition to the novel, we see Nathanial’s descendant rallying against whaling. Working for a conservation organisation, our final Coupar now fights to preserve whales against slaughter using direct action: confronting whalers head-on, out in the ocean. This final chapter in the story represents Australia’s modern anti-whaling stance and forms a striking parallel with the whaling community of their forebears.
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This is a story that poignantly depicts Albany in all 150 years of its whale history, from whaling town to whale protector, and ponders such matters as guilt and innocence, confrontation, passion and empathy. The grandiose symbolism of whales as life, and the very real intricate web of relationships of the people who must live together in this isolated town, works as a universal theme that is felt in the heart of humanity the world over.
Shallows, the novel, is available from Penguin Books.
Shallows, the novel, is available from Penguin Books.
