Love And The Platypus

In 1883 young British naturalist William Caldwell arrives in Australia with a mission: to determine for the scientific record whether the platypus really does lay eggs. But first he must travel overland to the Burnett River in Queensland, where he intends to set up camp. Once there, William starts his investigations and encounters the local Aboriginal people, enlisting their help and ultimately learning their tragic history. He also meets a young blind woman with many secrets of her own. Love and the Platypus is a delightful, captivating novel that examines the obsessive nature of scientific enquiry and its environmental consequences, and the wonders of the natural world and of romantic love.

Themes
animalsnature
Audience
adult

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Love And The Platypus? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Love And The Platypus. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The People's Train Shares Australia, historical fiction, fiction
  2. Outback Shares historical fiction, Australia, australian
  3. The Shiralee Shares Australia, australian, fiction
  4. The Secret River Shares historical fiction, Australia, fiction

“People who read Love And The Platypus tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Carpentaria
  2. Journey to the Stone Country
  3. To Name Those Lost
  4. Cooper's Creek

“If you want more of the same (historical fiction about animals), start with these.”

  1. Tom Houghton
  2. Forever Young
  3. A Changing Land
  4. Gold Dust

“If it was the Australia that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Potato Factory
  2. Spirit of Progress
  3. The Sinkings
  4. All The Rivers Run

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Platypus: The Extraordinary Story of How a Curious Creature Baffled the World
  2. Platypus
  3. Travels of William Bartram
  4. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World