Neill Florence

Out of the Shadow Neill Florence

Georg and Gretchen Schillingberg continue their pursuit of happiness across Australia as they travel from Townsville, on the coast, to Aramac in central Queensland with Georg's brother, Johannes. Gretchen has been redeemed from the hopeless drudgery of service to a cruel mistress, and she and her family have begun a truly new life. Before the journey, the group is persuaded to accept the assistance and protection of a bullocky named Joel Skipton and his Aboriginal assistant, Bindi. They were assured that there would be no Aboriginal attacks during the trek. But Joel's reputation as an immoral, antisocial, and unreliable person catches up with him, leaving the family to face the dangerous trip on their own. Gretchen, who has suffered social rejection in Germany, refuses to write off the native people and recognizes that there is a mystery surrounding the landscape they are passing through. Now these newcomers to the land must reach their own conclusions and find a way to achieve peace and harmony in the place they now call home. In this novel, the second in a series, an immigrant family from Germany crosses the Australian bush in search of a new home, facing dangers along the way.