Up the Carob Tree
by Enga Smith
ISBN 978-0-85905-645-8, (2016), sc, 430 grams, 233 pages
$30.00 + POST.
Available from the author PO Box 1154, Carnarvon, 6701. 99419585.
Up the Carob Tree is a novel firmly based in Western Australia. Related through the eyes of a growing child, it tells the story of a family living on the outskirts of 'an ordinary little country town' that remains nameless but could be anywhere the reader wishes to place it: anywhere with 'majestic' grain silos and a milk bar called the Rotunda with a juke box that works 'most of the time.' In due course there's a Drive –In and a new fangled establishment called a 'motel.' The four neighbouring blocks on East Quarry Road where the family lives are taken up by an assortment of people, all from 'somewhere else' with their different and colourful, sometimes mysterious backgrounds and circumstances that are of endless interest to a curious child.
The almost computer illiterate author was born in Geraldton in 1933, has travelled widely and lived in Carnarvon since the early seventies. This is her first attempt at writing a novel,
"It was time to try something new," she said. "A long slow effort but fun too."
Enga is a long time author with Hesperian Press. Her two biographical histories, Mostly Good Times and Saddle in the Kitchen have long intrigued Westralian readers. While We do not normally publish novels we have made exceptions for several of historical interest and from old associates.