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aligrant's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
ree333's review
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Chronic illness, Medical content, and Terminal illness
samstillreading's review against another edition
5.0
The Coast is a novel that knocks you for six – it’s that good. It’s emotional, heartbreaking and cruel at times, but joyous at others. This meticulously researched novel shines a spotlight on the individuals who were forced to live their lives in eternal quarantine because of leprosy – an infectious disease that can now be treated successfully with antibiotics.
Alice was a very young child when her mother, Clea, left the family in sudden, odd circumstances. But when she develops tell-tale marks on her skin, her grandmother takes her down to Sydney to see her mother in hospital – and leaves her there. It’s here that Alice learns she too has leprosy (now known as Hansen’s disease) like her mother and grandmother. She is now to live in the small, separated section of The Coast hospital until she is cured – or dies. While the residents of the lazaret have some freedoms – a beach to swim at and a small boat to fish with – they can never leave. As the disease progresses, they become disfigured and gangrene sets in to their fingers and toes. It’s not a nice way to live. Clea tries her best with Alice in difficult circumstances but it’s not easy being a mother for the first time. Alice is curious as she grows, and it’s the arrival of Guy that brings hope and happiness into her life. A Yuwaalaraay man and returned soldier from WWI, Guy offers Alice experiences and memories she’s never had. It’s bittersweet as Alice’s disease worsens and the public perception of those affected is so negative.
The Coast is intense. Intense with emotion, as Eleanor Limprecht tells the backstories of Alice, Clea and Guy (these are all their new names after coming to The Coast, as using their real names added stigma to their remaining families). We see their lives before they were affected by leprosy, and the shame and ill treatment they experienced due to their disease, and in Guy’s case, the colour of his skin. As the novel continues, there are lighter moments to be found in Guy and Alice’s relationship but all in all, you will need more than a few tissues. (The ending is particularly bittersweet).
Seeing the perspective through one of the only doctors not scared to visit the lazaret and treat the patients adds a good contrast. Will is frustrated by his inability to do more than reactive medicine and his role in keeping them separated from society. His own secret means he feels some empathy towards the patients and the stigma they feel. Clea’s stubbornness is something he is initially surprised at, but then grows to admire as she looks after Alice. Will is also disgusted by his colleagues, and their unwillingness to take care of the patients in the lazaret. This demonstrates how strong the fear was about ‘catching’ leprosy not only in the general community, but amongst medically trained staff.
It is interesting to compare Alice, Clea and Guy’s isolation and quarantine to that in the current COVID-19 pandemic. While theirs was much longer, it did make me ponder about the care and support needed to help these individuals. Overall, The Coast is a stellar read about a forgotten part of Australia’s history.
Thank you to Allen & Unwin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
Alice was a very young child when her mother, Clea, left the family in sudden, odd circumstances. But when she develops tell-tale marks on her skin, her grandmother takes her down to Sydney to see her mother in hospital – and leaves her there. It’s here that Alice learns she too has leprosy (now known as Hansen’s disease) like her mother and grandmother. She is now to live in the small, separated section of The Coast hospital until she is cured – or dies. While the residents of the lazaret have some freedoms – a beach to swim at and a small boat to fish with – they can never leave. As the disease progresses, they become disfigured and gangrene sets in to their fingers and toes. It’s not a nice way to live. Clea tries her best with Alice in difficult circumstances but it’s not easy being a mother for the first time. Alice is curious as she grows, and it’s the arrival of Guy that brings hope and happiness into her life. A Yuwaalaraay man and returned soldier from WWI, Guy offers Alice experiences and memories she’s never had. It’s bittersweet as Alice’s disease worsens and the public perception of those affected is so negative.
The Coast is intense. Intense with emotion, as Eleanor Limprecht tells the backstories of Alice, Clea and Guy (these are all their new names after coming to The Coast, as using their real names added stigma to their remaining families). We see their lives before they were affected by leprosy, and the shame and ill treatment they experienced due to their disease, and in Guy’s case, the colour of his skin. As the novel continues, there are lighter moments to be found in Guy and Alice’s relationship but all in all, you will need more than a few tissues. (The ending is particularly bittersweet).
Seeing the perspective through one of the only doctors not scared to visit the lazaret and treat the patients adds a good contrast. Will is frustrated by his inability to do more than reactive medicine and his role in keeping them separated from society. His own secret means he feels some empathy towards the patients and the stigma they feel. Clea’s stubbornness is something he is initially surprised at, but then grows to admire as she looks after Alice. Will is also disgusted by his colleagues, and their unwillingness to take care of the patients in the lazaret. This demonstrates how strong the fear was about ‘catching’ leprosy not only in the general community, but amongst medically trained staff.
It is interesting to compare Alice, Clea and Guy’s isolation and quarantine to that in the current COVID-19 pandemic. While theirs was much longer, it did make me ponder about the care and support needed to help these individuals. Overall, The Coast is a stellar read about a forgotten part of Australia’s history.
Thank you to Allen & Unwin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
thelibraryofklee's review against another edition
5.0
"Leper. The history of prejudice and fear was difficult to overcome."
Hello. Would you like to have your heartbroken? This Australian historical fiction will tear at all your heart strings so make sure to have a box of tissues handy.
Alice is only nine when she is sent to the Coast Hospital to live in the leper colony with her mother. Isolated and reviled, the community cling to the humanity of the small cohort who care for them. The coastal front provides some solace but Alice's world feels incredibly small for a child who once knew the "outside" world. Then Guy, a Yuwaalaraay man wounded in World War I, comes to the Coast and profoundly changes Alice's life forever.
This feels meticulously researched - we get a glimpse of the stolen generation, the impact of WW1, the ignorant knowledge about leprosy and the treatment of those who suffered from it. We get to see the atrocities allowed under the guise of health and education policy. Alice is endearing, her suffering alongside those of her at the long term living in the lazaret, and the moments of hope shine through the many torments of the suffering they face. The love story is painfully beautiful - not only the love between Guy and Alice, but the love between mother and child. This story has a redemptive quality unmatched by anything else I have read of recent.
Historical fiction fans - this is absolutely worth picking up.
"The world around me shrank and shrank, until it was the size of a bed."
Thank you to the publishers for trusting me with an honest review.
Hello. Would you like to have your heartbroken? This Australian historical fiction will tear at all your heart strings so make sure to have a box of tissues handy.
Alice is only nine when she is sent to the Coast Hospital to live in the leper colony with her mother. Isolated and reviled, the community cling to the humanity of the small cohort who care for them. The coastal front provides some solace but Alice's world feels incredibly small for a child who once knew the "outside" world. Then Guy, a Yuwaalaraay man wounded in World War I, comes to the Coast and profoundly changes Alice's life forever.
This feels meticulously researched - we get a glimpse of the stolen generation, the impact of WW1, the ignorant knowledge about leprosy and the treatment of those who suffered from it. We get to see the atrocities allowed under the guise of health and education policy. Alice is endearing, her suffering alongside those of her at the long term living in the lazaret, and the moments of hope shine through the many torments of the suffering they face. The love story is painfully beautiful - not only the love between Guy and Alice, but the love between mother and child. This story has a redemptive quality unmatched by anything else I have read of recent.
Historical fiction fans - this is absolutely worth picking up.
"The world around me shrank and shrank, until it was the size of a bed."
Thank you to the publishers for trusting me with an honest review.
henrymarlene's review against another edition
4.0
So much packed into this book by Eleanor Limprecht that I could not put it down: such a bittersweet tale about the fictional Coast Hospital in Little Bay, Sydney, where those who were suffering from infectious diseases were quarantined, or imprisoned for their hopeful recovery. This tale is told to us so well, that if I did not know it was a fictional place, would have thought it a part of Sydney’s history. The detail about Little Bay and the disease, which is now known a Hansen’s Disease is rich and written without stigma.
Alice/Hilda visited her mother at The Coast Hospital with her Gran, and was left there with her mother, Clea, who, like her, had leprosy. The Leprosy Act of the 1900s banished many away, including Clea’s father, who was the first to be housed at the Hospital. Alice grew up in the lazaraet, never knowing the outside world, and only having a handful of visitors. There she met Guy (once known as Jack), an indigenous young man who lived in the male lazaret, also diagnosed with an infectious disease. Alice and Guy/Jack developed a connection at the Hospital that takes away a lot of the pain they bear. Guy/Jack’s previous life was in World War 1 stationed in Egypt, and before that with him mum and nan in western NSW until he was forcibly removed under the 1909 NSW Aborigines Protection Act.
There are so many elements in this book worth noting. Dr Will Stenger’s compassion and devotion to the patients in the lazarets was inspiring and tragic as he used this to distract himself of his lifelong torment of a relationship with Ian (at a time where homosexuality was denied). The ostracization of so many in this book: Guy/Jack as an Aboriginal man in the armed forces and being reduced to a number when he is removed from his family; the relationship between Alice who was white, and Guy/Jack, who was Aboriginal at a time when there was mass genocide and forced removal of Aboriginal children across Australia, and the experience of Guy/Jack as an Aboriginal man in the armed forces. And the profound experience of touch that is lost to many patients with advanced symptoms of leprosy juxtaposed with the tactile descriptions of the beach, the homes and surroundings.
Love, courage, sacrifice and resilience. Thank you Allen and Unwin for the opportunity to read such a beautiful book.
Alice/Hilda visited her mother at The Coast Hospital with her Gran, and was left there with her mother, Clea, who, like her, had leprosy. The Leprosy Act of the 1900s banished many away, including Clea’s father, who was the first to be housed at the Hospital. Alice grew up in the lazaraet, never knowing the outside world, and only having a handful of visitors. There she met Guy (once known as Jack), an indigenous young man who lived in the male lazaret, also diagnosed with an infectious disease. Alice and Guy/Jack developed a connection at the Hospital that takes away a lot of the pain they bear. Guy/Jack’s previous life was in World War 1 stationed in Egypt, and before that with him mum and nan in western NSW until he was forcibly removed under the 1909 NSW Aborigines Protection Act.
There are so many elements in this book worth noting. Dr Will Stenger’s compassion and devotion to the patients in the lazarets was inspiring and tragic as he used this to distract himself of his lifelong torment of a relationship with Ian (at a time where homosexuality was denied). The ostracization of so many in this book: Guy/Jack as an Aboriginal man in the armed forces and being reduced to a number when he is removed from his family; the relationship between Alice who was white, and Guy/Jack, who was Aboriginal at a time when there was mass genocide and forced removal of Aboriginal children across Australia, and the experience of Guy/Jack as an Aboriginal man in the armed forces. And the profound experience of touch that is lost to many patients with advanced symptoms of leprosy juxtaposed with the tactile descriptions of the beach, the homes and surroundings.
Love, courage, sacrifice and resilience. Thank you Allen and Unwin for the opportunity to read such a beautiful book.
nina_reads_books's review against another edition
3.0
The Coast by Eleanor Limprecht is a historical fiction set in the early 20th century largely in Sydney. It has a pretty unique focus with the key characters people diagnosed with leprosy and sent to leper colonies. One of them is nine year old Alice who in 1910 is sent to the Coast Hospital in Sydney where she is reunited with her mother who left when she was two years old. Sadly she discovers that she has leprosy the same as her mother and grandfather before her. Over the years Alice and her mother make as much of life as they can while completely isolated at the Coast. But as a young woman Alice meets new arrival Guy, an Indigenous man injured in WW1. Alice and Guy’s friendship gives them both hope for the future.
I found this a pretty good piece of historical fiction, with a topic that was unusual which made for some interesting and unexpected plotlines. Limprecht drew inspiration from a real leper colony in Sydney and the final chapters where the changing understanding of leprosy by the medical field was brought in I found very interesting. Looking at what was once considered to be a highly contagious disease which required patients to be completely isolated drew some interesting connections with how we treated the Spanish flu in 1918 and with how the current pandemic has played out.
Overall a good book but it has highlighted to me that I am losing a bit of interest in the historical fiction genre and I may have to be a bit more selective in what I pick up. But I’m glad I finally picked up The Coast which was kindly gifted to me by the team @allenandunwin several months ago.
I found this a pretty good piece of historical fiction, with a topic that was unusual which made for some interesting and unexpected plotlines. Limprecht drew inspiration from a real leper colony in Sydney and the final chapters where the changing understanding of leprosy by the medical field was brought in I found very interesting. Looking at what was once considered to be a highly contagious disease which required patients to be completely isolated drew some interesting connections with how we treated the Spanish flu in 1918 and with how the current pandemic has played out.
Overall a good book but it has highlighted to me that I am losing a bit of interest in the historical fiction genre and I may have to be a bit more selective in what I pick up. But I’m glad I finally picked up The Coast which was kindly gifted to me by the team @allenandunwin several months ago.
imogenann's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
hannahbanks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
katherineannpotter's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0