Synopsis
As a boy, Daniel Rooke was always an outsider. At school he learned to hide his clever thoughts from his peers; at home his parents were bemused by their bookish son. Daniel could only hope that he would one day find his place in life. By 1788, Daniel has become Lieutenant Rooke, astronomer with the First Fleet as it lands on the unknown shores of New South Wales. As the newcomers struggle to establish a settlement for themselves andtheir cargo of convicts, and attempts are made to communicate with those who already inhabit this land, Rooke sets up his observatory to chart the stars. But the place where they have landed will prove far more revelatory than the night sky.
The New York Times - Alison McCulloch
The Lieutenant is less a story of colonial struggle and encounter than The Secret River, and more the richly imagined portrait of a deeply introspective, and quite remarkable, man.