“In Michigan 1999, Jack Fawcett is looking in the rearview mirror of his extraordinary life…”
In 1929 Jack traveled with his parents to the Brazilian Amazon Basin for his Father’s new job as key manager in Henry Ford’s brainchild Fordlandia. Set up for a reliable source of rubber for the shrewd American industrialist. The corporate Ford company in Detroit, Michigan required a huge supply for rubber for tyres and the Amazon provided all that was needed, albeit at a huge, exploitive cost to the rainforest, flora, fauna, vulnerable tribal groups and the rubber tapper workforce from Michigan.
Combining a fascinating history, this novel is to be appreciated when read slowly. I found myself pausing and re-reading a phrase. Big lofty observations of the world are neatly packed into sentences.
Unlikely friendships and alliances are like snapshots of light and hope throughout this harsh geographical environment and workplace brutality.
The reader will ponder Jack as a twelve-year-old, then Jack as he faced huge personal losses – onto Jack trying to be the man he is expected to be. All the versions of Jack in his aged years, trying to make sense of his lived life to fit into some sensical order.
Profound, poignant and sensitive, Everything Lost, Everything Found will provide book clubs with thoughtful dialogue comparing the ages and stages of Jack’s life.
Author Matthew Hooton is from the same publishers of Trent Dalton and you can see the similarities of a beautiful crafted tale.
‘All The Shimmering Stars’ by Trent Dalton is a genuine comparison.
Sue Reid
Read By Reid NZ
Harper Collins Australia
ISBN 9781460765869