Deepwater

The year is 1914, the outbreak of World War I and the start of a severe drought throughout the state of Victoria (in Australia) which was to bring many of the settlers to the brink of ruin. Both the War and the drought are seen through the eyes of a 14-year-old Australian girl Char, living in the small farming community of Deepwater. The themes of the ruse of anti-German feeling within the community, the hardships faced by the settlers and their eventual realisation of the tragedy of the War combine with the varied and often humorous episodes of everyday life at Deepwater to make a powerful and many-layered novel.