International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award

"I was smart as a carrot new-scraped and that was the best of me. I loved my scriptures and I lived my happiness to the full ...." Based on the true story of Syms Covington, man-servant to Charles Darwin on the famous voyage of the Beagle, this is a novel of scientific discovery, religious faith, masters and servants, ambition and adventure, and the endless wonder of the natural world. As a boy, Covington looked up at the beckoning figure of yellow-haired Christian in the stained-glass window of his Bedford chapel and sought to follow. When he meets Darwin, fifteen-year-old Covington is already an old Patagonia hand. In the course of their voyage together he shoots and collects hundreds of specimens which become fundamental to the formulation of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. But what do these discoveries mean for a man's soul? Darwin's work challenges Biblical creation. In assisting him, has Covington committed a crime against God and his own nature? In beset middle age, Covington awaits the arrival of the first copy of Darwin's The Origins of the Species in Sydney's Watson's Bay. What part of his life might be in it? What truths may it contain? Earthy, insightful and beautuifully written, Mr Darwin's Shooter is a novel from a writer at the height of his powers.
Roger McDonald was born in rural New South Wales in 1941 and educated at county schools and in Sydney. His writing career began with poetry, moved on to fiction, and encompasses travel writing, essays and screenplays. His books have been published in Australia, the UK and the US. His novel 1915 won both the Age Book of the Year Award and the South Australian Government Biennial Prize for Literature. His account of working as a shearers' cook in outback Australia, Shearer's Motel, won the National Book Council Banjo Award for Non-Fiction. Mr Darwin's Shooter is his sixth novel.

Mr Darwin's Shooter by Roger McDonald Nominated by:

Mr Darwin's Shooter by
Roger McDonald

Nominated by: