Lead Review

• Book: The Rain Heron
• Location: World
• Author: Robbie Arnott

Review Author: Tina Hartas

This engrossing and exquisitely written second novel by Arnott begins with three apparently unconnected narratives. The opening section, entitled Part O, reads like a fable; a starving farmer in a drought stricken unnamed country has an encounter with the rain heron of the title, miraculously the rain falls and her farm thrives. This produces jealousy on the part of her neighbours, one of whom threatens the heron and his action plunges the region back into devastation. This short allegorical opening to the novel begins the exploration of human cruelty and environmental negligence that will be the main focus of the rest.

Next, we meet Ren, a hermit who is scraping an existence, living in a cave in the mountains, hunting and foraging for food. Arnott gives us tempting glimpses of her past and a life that perhaps resembles our own and hints at tragedy. Ren remembers a childhood experience with her grandmother who took her on a trek up the mountain to the home of the rain heron. The tranquillity of her life is disrupted by a group of soldiers who have come in search of the heron. In this post-war world of climate disaster, the powers that be believe that the capture of the heron might give them control of the climate.

The second part of the novel takes us somewhere else entirely in a time before the war. The central character here is a young girl named Zoe who lives with her aunt in a small fishing community, a community that survives by secretive harvesting of squid ink. Their livelihood and symbiotic relationship with nature is threatened by the arrival of a northerner who wants to interfere and modernize the industry. It takes a while for the reader to realize that Zoe is actually Harker as a young girl. This is exceptionally clever characterisation on the part of Arnott, as we are forced to reconsider our preformed opinion of Harker.

Each of these narratives could stand on their own as a moral tale, conveying a clear message about the way we are destroying our world but the way in which Arnott has woven them together is nothing short of genius and provides a satisfying whole.

There are so many good things about this novel, it is difficult to know where to start. The characterisation is masterful; the novel is full of strong three-dimensional female characters, a rare treat. The setting is difficult to pin down, being seemingly an amalgamation of Europe and Arnott’s native Tasmania but the descriptions of nature, landscape, animal and human, both beautiful and cruel, are quite simply wonderful.

There is much to think about here. The Rain Heron forces the reader to consider our relationship with nature and the way in which greed blinds us to the potential destruction of our planet but, in the final section of the novel, we begin to see the heron as a metaphor for change and we are ultimately left with some hope for redemption.

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