The Shape of Water – Imagined Fragments from an Elusive Life: Sophia Degraves of Van Diemen's Land | Anne Blythe-Cooper | 2016 [SC]

The imagined story of Sophia Degraves — wife of Peter Degraves, founder of the Cascade Brewery and the Theatre Royal in Hobart Town, whose legacy endures in both institutions still operating today.

Peter Degraves was controversial, charismatic and irrepressible — in the press, in the courts and in prison. He survived shipwreck, ruin and slander. His story is well documented. But this is not his story. Sophia Degraves survives only as a silent register of birth and death. Nothing is known of her beyond the children she bore and the death she died.

Anne Blythe-Cooper's novel imagines what that catalogue leaves out — the privations, aspirations and inner life of an invisible colonial woman '"ho built in flesh and blood what the men around her built with water and stone". At 225 pages, a quiet and considered piece of Tasmanian historical fiction that fills a silence the historical record has left.

BOOK DETAILS

• Softcover.
• 225 pages.
• Published 2016.

CONDITION

New.

DELIVERY & IN-STORE PICKUP

• Combined Shipping: Sourcing multiple titles for your Tasmanian history library? The Book Cellar offers combined flat-rate parcel delivery across Australia. Secure your books using our online checkout, or phone the bookshop directly on 03 6381 1545 to coordinate multi-volume shipping.
• Free Instore Pickup: Located in Tasmania or travelling the Midland Highway? Select "Instore Pickup" at checkout to pay no postage and collect your items directly from the counter at The Book Cellar, underneath Foxhunters Return in Campbell Town.