Wrack by James Bradley

Publisher's Synopsis

Archaeologist David Norfolk is searching for a 400-year-old Portuguese shipwreck off the coast of New South Wales. Such a find would rewrite the history of the discovery of Australia. But instead he unearths the body of a man murdered fifty years earlier, and begins to unravel a more personal kind of history.

An elderly recluse, dying in a nearby shack, seems to know something of the corpse’s identity – and also its connection to the shipwreck. He begins telling David about his own past, a story of a life marred by passion, rivalry and betrayal. But what does he know about the ship and the murder – and will he tell David before it is too late?

My Review of Wrack by James Bradley

Australia. Terra Australis Incognita. The Great South Land. First discovered by white man in 1770 when Captain James Cook landed in Botany Bay and claimed the land for the British Empire. We all know this, it's in the history books. But there remains the possibility that Australia was discovered much, much earlier by the Portuguese, way back in the 16th Century. In their search for gold and spices, it is possible that they ventured down to the mysterious Java la Grande that lurked off the edges of their maps. After all, all of those stories of a Portuguese shipwreck found on the south eastern coast of New South Wales can't be mere legend, can they?

Dr David Norfolk has become obsessed with finding a shipwreck, supposedly buried in the sand along the south coast of New South Wales somewhere. He has documentary evidence that suggests that a Portuguese ship dating back to the 16th Century had been discovered by some of Australia's early settlers. The rediscovery of this ship could rewrite the history books and David is desperate to be the man to do it.

While on another of his archaeological digs on the southern New South Wales coast, hoping to find the ship, David's team discovers a mummified corpse that has obviously been there for quite a few years. The police are called in and the dig is halted. During this pause in his quest, one of the policemen points out that a man living in a nearby shack had been living there for many years and may be able to help David with information about the ship he is searching for.

When David meets the old man, whose name is Kurt Seligman, two things are immediately apparent. Firstly, the man is obviously dying, perhaps with only weeks to live and secondly, he definitely has knowledge of the shipwreck - intimate knowledge.

From this point the story alternates between the present and the remembered past of 1937 as Kurt relates his story. In both stories comes the feeling of desperation driven by the lure of the elusive ship - both Kurt and David are joined by an immense drive to have their beliefs confirmed. In telling his story, Kurt lays bare his heart, revealing the heartbreak surrounding his one true love, Veronica and the lies and deceit surrounding their relationship. Although his story appears to ramble, it leads inexorably to the beach and the shack in which he is now dying.

Wrack becomes a race between the end of Kurt's story and the end of Kurt's life, which inevitably goes right down to the wire. The mere thirst for knowledge is an unusual basis on which to build suspense, but as a variant on the race against time theme that many thrillers are based it is just as effective. In all of this there is also the question of whose body was found in the dunes and how it came to be buried there.

A particularly strong feature of Wrack is Bradley's attention to detail when bringing his characters to life. The empty shell of a man dying at the start of the book becomes a vibrant, intense young man through the telling of his story. David, who first appears impatient and impetuous, shows a calmer more understanding side by the end. Each man's respective love interest, Kurt's fiery Veronica and David's sensible Claire, are also fully developed and believable characters.

Scattered between Kurt's story and his worsening condition in the present, James Bradley has dotted the story with historical facts, suppositions and legends relating to the discovery of Australia. All of these anecdotes helped to increase the desire to confirm the existence of the Portuguese ship. I felt, through these stories, that I too had a vested interest in the story and could relate to David and Kurt's hunger to learn the truth.

Wrack is a story that starts out as a treasure hunt before becoming a moving story of friendship, love and betrayal. A healthy dose of myth and legend and the prospect of a history changing discovery gives it added appeal. James Bradley has done a wonderful job in his debut novel combining history with a more modern day mystery and the possibility that there may be more to the story of Australia than we have always thought.