The Facing Island

Know about the book -

The Facing Island is written by Jan Bassett and published by Melbourne University Publish. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0522850294 (ISBN 10) and 9780522850291 (ISBN 13).

The discovery of a wonderful primary source—the five-year correspondence from Wilson Tong of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to Edith Harris at Phillip Island—inspired the author to create this rich and unusual memoir, written as she came to terms with a diagnosis of cancer. As the author replies to the long-dead soldier's letters, links and parallels emerge between the young man living with the fear of death and the woman, 80 years later, facing her own death in middle age. She reflects on her life—particularly her childhood on Phillip Island—her work, and her own confrontation with mortality.