{"product_id":"the-moving-finger","title":"The Moving Finger","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat does a person do when the country is hard, help is far away, and choices cannot be undone?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn The Moving Finger, Mary Gaunt brings together seven short tales of the Australian frontier. The bush, its settlers and the people passing through it form a world where love and survival meet the pressure of fate. This is frontier life seen through human needs, not a postcard of the country.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGaunt grows up in a Victorian country town, close to the meeting of law and land. Her stories invite you to consider ordinary people under pressure: distance, weather, money and loneliness. The title echoes the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and its image of writing that no human effort can call back or change.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eInside this book\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe frontier as a test\u003c\/strong\u003e – Explore hard country through the question of what people do when help is far away.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLove beside survival\u003c\/strong\u003e – Discover tales that place love alongside the demands of survival on the Australian frontier.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe weight of fate\u003c\/strong\u003e – Consider the title’s unsettling idea: some things cannot be called back or changed.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA plain human view\u003c\/strong\u003e – Look beyond a postcard of the bush to its settlers and the people passing through.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStories for one sitting\u003c\/strong\u003e – Spend time with short tales whose longer, more formal sentences invite a quieter reading pace.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerfect for readers who love short fiction, colonial Australian writing, and stories of hard country and hard choices.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpen the first page now and enter Mary Gaunt’s world of frontier lives and choices.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Library of Alexandria Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59534719943004,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1027\/9442\/8764\/files\/12720_en_ebook-front_c28.jpg?v=1792175132","url":"https:\/\/libraryofalexandria.com\/products\/the-moving-finger","provider":"The Library of Alexandria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}