On the surface, the three main characters in Cate Kennedy's debut novel - 15-year-old Sophie and her long-separated parents Rich and Sandy - are wholly unlikeable. Yet as its title suggests, The World Beneath delves deeper, exploring the insecurities and long-held secrets that make people behave as they do. Kennedy skillfully plumbs the depths of parent-child bonds, the environmental movement and the disappointments of middle-age.

Much of the action takes place in the beautifully evoked Tasmanian wilderness, where Rich has taken Sophie in a rather whimsical attempt to establish a father-daughter connection. Naturally, Rich's feeble plan is soon blown off-course and Kennedy's writing steadily gathers momentum. The last 50 or so pages are quite breathtaking, and signal Cate Kennedy as a novelist to watch. ( )

Read in Bali on my 50th. ( )

The story of Rich and Sandy, and their teenage daughter, Sophie. Rich and Sandy - no longer together - were once environmental activists who took part in the famous protests to save the Franklin wilderness, in Tasmania. Sophie is scathing towards her mother, and has had little or no contact with her father. Rich invites Sophie on a trek in Tasmania, and what unfolds will bring the tensions between the three into sharp relief.

This was a really good read for me for its portrayal of the relationships between Sophie and her parents, and for its exploration of the impact (or lack of impact) of being involved in such a massive protest movement in one's youth. Whatever originally motivated Rich and Sandy to become involved in the protests, it's interesting how they now talk about this as the high point of their lives, and how they now seem to be all about posing as a concerned and ethical consumer (Sandy) and the sort of father Sophie would admire (Rich) ...

Sophie does scathing and vitrolic like the quintessential teenager, and yet you can't help but sympathise with her at some points in the novel.

I wasn't entirely sure about the ending, but it grew on me upon reflection. A good premise, well executed, and another good start to the year ... ( )

This is an uniquely Australian novel, the first by this author, who has written short stories before this. It revisits the Franklin river blockade and tells of a trek through the Tasmanian wilderness. Rich and Sandy met during the Franklin river blockade and parted some years later after having a child Sophie. The Franklin river blockade was for them the defining moment of their lives, something they often hark back to, but something which bores their daughter Sophie. Since then Rich has had a series of dead end jobs and struggled to try and become a successful professional photographer.. He still laments his careless loss of the 'perfect' photo he took of the Franklin river. Sandy has turned into an aging hipppie still trying to sell her jewellery at the markets, and very concerned about what others think. Because she does not want to be a controlling mother like hers was, she has little idea of what is happening to her daughter who lives on a regime of little food and lots of exercise to try and get some control in her life.
Sophies father who has only had contact with her at birthdays calls and wants to take her on a trek into the Tasmanian wilderness, much to her mother's disapproval, but Sophie is keen so they go. he wants to get to know her better and gain her acceptance. This leads him to take the two of them on an extra trek on their own to really experience the widerness, after the main trek is complete, and that is when things go really wrong, and they are not on their flight home.
I won't give any more details of the story. It was to me an excellent study in family relationships, especially between Rich and Sophie. Neither Rich or Sandy, Sophies mother, were very likeable characters. Sophie was the one who changed the most and I came to admire her more at the end of the story. It was a well written story with great descriptive language and although the end was a little drawn out it was still a great read. ( )

Although he left his wife and daughter when Sophie was just a year old, Rich decides now that she is 15, he and she need to spend some time together. Mother Sandy is frantic--he wants to take Sophie hiking in the wilderness of Tasmania! How can she trust this man to watch after her precious daughter? Told from the viewpoints of each of the main characters, the reader gets to know each of them, perhaps too well. Rich is a bit of a blow-hard, who presents himself as being far more accomplished than he really is. Sandy is stuck in the New-Ageness of 30 years ago. Neither of them seems to have grown very much since the defining moment of their life, the march to preserve the Tasmanian wilderness, which happens to be where they met.
Predictably, the hike is not as trouble-free as Rich had assured both Sandy and Sophie it would be, but when it is over, each of the three them has grown, and become more comfortable with themselves. The Australian setting takes some getting used to--Tasmania really is not on the other side of the world! The author's descriptions of the landscape on the trek are quite delicious. It's unfortunate that the characters are not more likable. The smartest and strongest of them is Sophie, by far, and she has her own devils to fight. An interesting look at the dynamics of a long-separated family, nicely written, but focusing on people we don't care so much about knowing. ( )