TO NAME THOSE LOST

The keenly awaited follow up to the multi-award winning debut, The Roving Party, by Rohan Wilson.

In 1829, Thomas Toosey, age 15, still only a stripling, is the youngest member of the roving party – a group of criminals and bounty-hunters charged with the task of moving Tasmanian Aborigines off grazing land by any means necessary. Released from prison to become part of the Batman-led Aborigine hunting pack, Thomas was catapulted into the midst of murder and mayhem at a very early age. Summer 1874. After abandoning his wife and child many years ago, the Black War veteran Thomas Toosey must return to the city to search for William, his now motherless twelve-year-old son. He travels through the island's northern districts during a time of impossible hardship - hardship that has left its mark on him too. Arriving in Launceston, however, Toosey discovers a town in chaos. He is desperate to find his son amid the looting and destruction, but at every turn he is confronted by the Irish transportee Fitheal Flynn and his companion, the hooded man, to whom Toosey owes a debt that he must repay. To Name Those Lost is the story of a father's journey. Wilson has an eye for the dirt, the hardness, the sheer dog- eat-doggedness of the lives of the poor. Human nature is revealed in all its horror and beauty as Thomas Toosey struggles with the good and the vile in himself and learns what he holds important. Rohan Wilson lived a long, mostly lonely, life until a lucky turn of events led him to take up a teaching position in Japan where he met his wife. Rohan holds degrees and diplomas from the universities of Tasmania, Southern Queensland and Melbourne. His first book, The Roving Party, won the 2011 The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award as well as the Margaret Scott Prize, Tasmanian Literary Awards in 2013, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2012 and was shortlisted for 4 further awards. Rohan was chosen as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists in 2012. He can be found on Twitter: @rohan_wilson.