Brendan Colley

Imagine, if you will, a vintage steam train barrelling down the disused railway lines of modern day cities, occasionally collecting confused passengers and depositing them at some bizarre destination, not necessarily on the same continent. And imagine too, that all the observers of this phenomenon suspend all scepticism, when you'd otherwise expect them to snort in disbelief or rationalise reports of the event as drugs, drunkenness or mental disturbance. A ghost train at large in Tasmania is the premise of debut author Brendan Colley's The Signal Line, which won the Unpublished Manuscript Prize in the 2019 Tasmanian Premier's Literary Awards. It's a book that requires the reader to suspend all disbelief too, and to enter into the weirdness...

It works because everything else is so real. Brothers Geo and Wes are locked in a dispute about whether to sell the house they've inherited. Geo needs the money to finance his emerging career as a violist. Wes, a detective, wants to wallow in the squalor of the house where his father died but grief also claims him because his marriage is over, and he's not willing to let go of either the house or his wife and child.

The novel begins with Geo's arrival in Tasmania, where he gets roped in to translate for a bunch of Italians who got on a train in Orvieto and arrived in Hobart. Hobart hasn't had passenger trains since the 1970s, so the officials who have to deal with them naturally think that they are deluded and they are taken not to immigration detention but to a hospital. But these Italians seem perfectly sane, and their story makes sense, except that none of it is possible.

Much like his toxic relationship with his father, Geo's relationship with his brother has always been hostile. Much of the resentment comes from sibling rivalry about talent and hard work. Geo, with the love and encouragement of his mother, is following his dream to play in an orchestra, an ambition which may perhaps be beyond his talent. Wes works hard at his job, which involves family-unfriendly long hours and a negative view of the world.

The hostility arcs up the minute these two meet at the airport, and things only get worse from then on.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/04/19/the-signal-line-by-brendan-colley/… (mehr)