Stilwater

“Rhapsodic … Rafael de Grenade provides a stirring natural portrait of her environs, profiling its tireless, weathered crew of cowboys… . She imparts sharp-eyed views of salty mudflats, of freshwater holes sentineled by crocodiles and her own adaptation as her sense of identity ebbed and bloomed. A vivid, sweeping chronicle of the Australian Outback.”

“An extraordinary setting for an absorbing and finely tuned memoir. Crocs, swamps, drought, wild horses and cattle—this portrait of a young woman’s life on a seemingly endless cattle station in northern Australia is simply too good to put down.”

“This contemplation of compassion and its place in the outback tells us about this narrator’s priorities and perspective. She knows that place was and always will be first. That place has its way with us and we humans should honor that for the infinitesimal time we are here.”

“Rafael de Grenade conjures an almost unfathomable world that is at once prehistoric and yet so impacted by man that it is hard to draw clear distinctions between the domestic, the feral, and the wild. The vivid precision she brings to her descriptions and her extraordinary ability to explain their web of connections make her one of the strongest and most surprising voices to emerge in some time.”

“This monumental adventure on a cattle station in the remotest part of the Australian Outback is told forthrightly and without sentiment. Stilwater Station was no theme park. It was ringers, bulldust, blood, grime, being on horseback under a helicopter in the maelstrom of a muster, solitude, introspection, growth.”