Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter

By: Lizzie Pook

Narrated by: Anna Skellern

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

For readers and listeners of The Light Between Oceans and The Island of Sea Women, a “sensitive and compassionate” (The New York Times Book Review) feminist adventure story set against the backdrop of the dangerous pearl diving industry in 19th-century Western Australia, about a young English woman who sets off to uncover the truth about the disappearance of her eccentric father.

Western Australia, 1886. After months at sea, a slow boat makes its passage from London to the shores of Bannin Bay. From the deck, young Eliza Brightwell and her family eye their strange, new home. Here is an unforgiving land where fortune sits patiently at the bottom of the ocean, waiting to be claimed by those brave enough to venture into its depths. An ocean where pearl shells bloom to the size of soup plates, where men are coaxed into unthinkable places and unspeakable acts by the promise of unimaginable riches.

Then years later, the pearl-diving boat captained by Eliza’s eccentric father returns after months at sea—without Eliza’s father on it. Whispers from townsfolk point to mutiny or murder. Headstrong Eliza knows it’s up to her to discover who, or what, is really responsible.

As she searches for the truth, Eliza discovers that beneath the glamourous veneer of the pearling industry, lies a dark underbelly of sweltering, stinking decay. The sun-scorched streets of Bannin Bay, a place she once thought she knew so well, are teeming with corruption, prejudice, and blackmail. Just how far is Eliza willing to push herself in order to solve the mystery of her missing father? And what family secrets will come to haunt her along the way?

An “extraordinarily vivid” (Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan) feminist adventure story based on Lizzie Pook’s deep research into the pearling industry and the era of British colonial rule in Australia, Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter is ultimately about the lengths one woman will travel to save her family.

©2022 Lunar Books Limited. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Penguin Random House Australia. All rights reserved.

Couldn’t stop listening

This book is so interesting. Pearling, a topic I knew nothing about, is the back ground for a family mystery. The characters are richly created and her descriptions of people and place so vivid I could smell them. The reading itself was excellent, thoughtful and richly acted. Thank you for a great listen.

Another Women’s Advocacy Novel

More from the fem fad advocacy team. Time to move on, people. No more words needed.

atmospheric story

Author Lizzie Pook has written a beautifully atmospheric story of the perilous lives of pearl divers in Western Australia during the late 1800’s. This is billed as a feminist adventure story in that the main character is Eliza Brightwell who is a pearler’s daughter. Her father, a boss of pearl divers, moved his family to the fictious town of Bannin Bay where money can be made in pearl harvesting. He goes missing after months at sea in which his boat returns without him. Everyone believes he’s dead, except for Lizzie whose plucky spirit makes her undeterred in the face of negativity. She becomes the Australian version of Nancy Drew.

The best part of the novel, for me, was Pook’s ability to make the reader feel the inequities brought on by the colonizers to the original Aboriginal people. The colonizers enslaved the Aboriginal people, paying them poverty wages, forcing pregnant women to deep dive, some dying in the process. The colonizers brought a social class system that mistreated the indigenous people. Pook also provided the reader with the backdrop of the flora and fauna of the area. The lengthy sea expeditions were fraught with danger and hazards. Her ability to write an atmospheric story is in the class of Jane Harper. In her author’s note, she said that she based her story on Broome Australia, which in the 1800s saw the boom of the pearling industry which involved indentured labor and slavery. The pearl diving attracted Japanese and other Asians, although the power of the area was exclusively European. The history of Broome provides the historical framework of the story.

The story of Eliza’s journey to find the truth of her father’s disappearance is not the strength of the story. Pook introduced various interesting characters, such as Min, a mixed-race girl of an Asian father who was forced into prostitution to survive. Min’s character could have been an interesting story. There is an orphan girl, Knife, who disguises herself as a boy to get by. Even Eliza’s father, who the reader only knows through his diary was an opportunity missed.

As far as a historical fiction work goes, it rates high for me in that I learned a lot about this piece of history and also the pearling industry. As far as the adventure piece goes, it was a miss for me.

I listened to the audio narrated by Anna Skellern. I do love Australian accents, so it was a joy to listen to. I question whether the fact that I listened to the story, rather than read it, may have contributed to the adventure piece falling flat.

Needed a book for a project but wow…

Usually I’m not a reader, which is why I decided to get this audiobook to listen to make it easier for me, but when I tell you I was fully emerged in this story. I can’t find books I like, but when I read the first half of this on my own I was willing to go through this entire book with no shortcuts. Not only a story about a girl who lost her father, but also the reality check of pearler industries as well as family. 10/10 for me, definitely worth the listen I’d say.