Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Shadowboxing

The story of an American pugilist
by
April 2022, no. 441

The Sawdust House by David Whish-Wilson

Fremantle Press, $32.99 pb, 304 pp

Shadowboxing

The story of an American pugilist
by
April 2022, no. 441
David Whish-Wilson (photograph via Fremantle Press)
David Whish-Wilson (photograph via Fremantle Press)

In David Whish-Wilson’s new historical novel, The Sawdust House, it’s 1856 San Francisco, where the citizen-led Committee of Vigilance has convened to purge foreign undesirables from a city populace swollen beyond control by the gold rush. Of course, armed nativists ‘enthralled by their own performance’ are a common feature of U.S. history, from the Virginian lynch mobs of the late 1700s to that guy in the fuzzy Viking hat parading around the Capitol Building just last year. In an intriguing twist, however, the pitchforks are aimed this time at those ‘vermin from some hellish southern continent’, aka Australians, particularly a criminal element who congregate in a lawless quarter nicknamed Sydney-town.

Alex Cothren reviews 'The Sawdust House' by David Whish-Wilson

The Sawdust House

by David Whish-Wilson

Fremantle Press, $32.99 pb, 304 pp

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.