The Wounded Sinner was first published in 2018, but though I do my best to keep up with new releases by Indigenous authors, I owe my belated discovery of this novel to Writers WA. Amongst other writerly activities, they produce resources for readers: a regular newsletter and the ‘Love to Read Local’ Week and a Bookclub. (They also have a quirky feature called ‘Look Who Loves to Read Local’ featuring famous and not-quite-so-famous people and the WA book they’ve chosen. Check it out.) Fortunately for me, they featured The Wounded Sinner and I’ve been able to source a copy in time for #IndigLitWeek.
Anyway, my discovery of The Wounded Sinner coincided with the re-opening of my library, and I don’t need to tell you how wonderful that is! I do have lots of books of my own to read, but going to the library has been part of my life since I was a very small girl, and I had missed it…
The Wounded Sinner is a gritty novel. Woven around a chance friendship between two men whose relationships are a bit of a mess, it explores the complexities of caring for ageing parents, loyalty to marriages under strain, and the issues of identity for Indigenous people trying to reconnect with their own culture. Henderson’s profile at Magabala Books explains how he has an intimate understanding of what this means:
"Gus Henderson was born in Sydney in 1950, and had a turbulent upbringing, much of it with his aunt and uncle. He says his schooling was forgettable. He joined the Army in 1967 but did not serve in Vietnam. He was married in 1974 and divorced in 1980. He met his current wife in 1980 and has six children and 17 grandchildren. He completed his PhD in Writing at Edith Cowan University and is currently retired. His people are from around the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Gus and his siblings grew up without any of his Aboriginal family and it has been a struggle over the years to construct a realistic heritage. As children, they were always told not to tell anybody."
This issue of caring for ageing parents is common amongst my age group. Although they had much else to deal with (the Depression, WW2) our parents mostly did not have this responsibility. Their parents died of heart disease or cancer in what we would now call middle age, in their fifties and sixties, and sometimes even in their forties. But now, with improvements in health care, it is common for people to live into their eighties, nineties, and even beyond. My generation, who mostly had children late, are sometimes called the ‘sandwich generation‘ because they are now often grappling with needy millennials and their ageing parents as well. It’s a phenomenon which is made more complex when relationships between the carer and the ageing parents are not very good. That’s how it is for Matthew, whose father is a racist and a bigot, and who rejects Matthew’s choice of partner because she is Indigenous.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/07/07/the-wounded-sinner-by-gus-henderson/ ( )