162 MAY 2017
The River Sings
by Sandra Leigh Price, HarperCollins.
The first thing that strikes you about this
rich andlyrical novel is the language.
Author Sandra Leigh Price is a beautiful
wordsmith and her at times magical, often
brutal, fable based on the
English gypsies who were
transported to Australia in
the 1800s beguiles with its
lilting prose pregnant with
Romany phrasing.
“My inspiration forThe
River Singscame in three
striking images,” Sandra
tellsThe Australian
Women’s Weekly. “One
was the Romany tradition
of burying dead children
by the side of the road
with acorns in their palms
so that they’d always be
near the road and never
lonely or forgotten.
“The other was the idea
of dolls and objects as
holders of memory – in
particular, the young
Princess Alexandrina (later
Queen Victoria) and her
fascination with dolls. And
lastly, my convict ancestor’s
house, which still stands
in Richmond, NSW.
I was fascinated by the
turnaround of his fortune
within a short time and the
idea of emotional damage
transportation caused
families left behind.”
The story opens in 1819
on a rural Romany camp
in England with the vivid
scene of Patrin, the daughter of Romany
gypsies Josiah and Sarah, giving birth. Josiah
is catching rabbits as Patrin’s waters break
and he and Sarah take their daughter into
the freezing swirling river for a water birth.
The wider “kin” insist on a later baptism,
superstitiously fearing bad luck, but Patrin
knows her daughter is a “Riverling” (her
private name for the tot), who was naturally
baptised the minute she was born.
When dad Amberline sees his daughter,
he gives her a silver heart,
which he has fashioned
from a sixpence, and
names her Eglantine after
his mother, who lives
in London. The action
then jumps and we find
six-year-old Eglantine
living with her father and
a housekeeper in a chic
house in London, with
no sign of the child’s
mother Patrin.
Amberline is teaching
his daughter the art of
pickpocketing, which
is at the heart of his
duplicitous stock and
trade. Eglantine is a
confused little girl,
desperate to please her
father, unaware of her
Romany heritage yet
clearly drawn to her
watery destiny.
What happens next is a
complex tale of love and
death (including a
hanging), guile and innate
nature, as Eglantine is
buffeted between her
father’s brash, dark and
devious world, her inner
gypsy and a new love who
offers life in a brave new
world – Australia’s New
South Wales.
Watch out for a fabulous rat-catching
episode in Kensington Palace and some
prophetic Romany royal palm-reading
deliciously woven into our heroine’s
complex and engrossing journey.Reading room
Prepare to be beguiled by beautiful prose in this tale of love, death
and identity, writesJuliet Rieden.ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Sandra
Leigh Price
Canberra-born Sandra
Leigh Price started her
career in the theatre,
co-founding a small
company. Her move
into writing was the
next step. “The theatre
is a palace for people
who love words. My
plays were very
wordy and probably
longed to be novels
more than plays.
Writing fiction allowed
me to create a world
that wasn’t dependent
on anyone else but
myself,” says Sarah.
The River Singsis the
44-year-old’s second
novel, inspired by her
convict ancestors.“
Patrin knows her
daughter is a
‘Riverling’ (her
name for the tot),
who was naturally
baptised the
minute she
was born.”^
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