Reader recommendation: The Lieutenant

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

November 14, 2012

Kate Grenville draws you into a subtle pas de deux in The Lieutenant, set in New South Wales, Australia, when His Majesty’s ships arrive with troops and convicts in 1786.  Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, always an outsider, meets with conflict as he tries to balance his knowledge of early navigation and astronomy, his duty to a binding pledge, and the friendships he develops with the Aborigines. This novel is at times mysterious yet also relevant to today’s culture misunderstandings.