A Far Flung Life by M. L. Stedman

The author's second book was worth the wait. It is also set in Western Australia and is as steeped in moral ambiguity as her first. It is also deep in calamity, careening from one to another throughout the book and across the years, and once again (as with her first) there is a big secret that propels a lot of decisions and events that follow. It begins in 1958 and follows several generations of the MacBride family on their million-acre sheep ranch, Meredith Downs. Here, small decisions have vast consequences: when the patriarch, Phil, swerves to avoid a kangaroo while driving home from the market, he and his eldest son, Warren, are killed. Matt, the youngest son, only just survives. Lorna, suddenly a widow, takes over the reins of the ranch, now the sole parent not only of Matt, whose amnesic head injury forces him to redefine who he is and the life he had once hoped for, but also of her spirited daughter, Rosie. The book has loss and regret at it's core, and is preoccupied by what governs our understanding of right and wrong, as well as how we define our sense of family and identity. It is atmospheric, deep, and unsettling, all in a very good way.