A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove

Although he was born in Sydney, James Moloney spent most of his life in Brisbane, Australia, where his family moved when he was seven. Moloney attended Griffith University, where he earned a dual degree in Teacher-Librarianship and Computer Education. He spent several years teaching in various schools around Australia, including in Indigenous communities in the Outback region. In his late 20s, he took a year off work to travel the world. When he returned to Australia, he settled down into a teaching position at an all-boys school in Brisbane and married his wife, Kate. Moloney held his position there for 15 years, during which time he began writing and publishing young adult literature. His first book, Crossfire, came out in 1992. He left teaching for a full-time writing career when his 1996 novel, A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove, earned the Australian Children’s Book of the Year. Moloney has written no fewer than 43 books for children and young adults and has won numerous awards including the Children’s Peace Literature Award and a Gold Inky Award. He lives in Brisbane with his family.

A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove is set in the fictional town of Wattle Beach off the fictional Bede Island, which is based on a real place in Australia. Now renamed K’gari, at the time the novel was published, the island was known as “Frasier Island,” the name given to it by European colonizers in 1847. Logging began on the island, which is home to vast and diverse rainforests, in 1863. In the story, Skip Duncan gives up his job in the timber industry and becomes the owner of a barge carrying tourists to the island after Dessie Matt accidentally causes him a serious injury. He likely would have lost that job in real life, too, as all logging activities on the island ceased in 1991 due to environmental concerns. In 1971, the northern half of the island was turned into a national park, which was extended to cover the whole island in 1992 when it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of Australia’s most prominent tourist attractions, drawing half a million visitors annually.

In essays and interviews, author James Moloney has named several books that influenced him or that share thematic elements with A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove. These include Michelle Magorian’s 1981 young adult novel Goodnight, Mr. Tom; Cynthia Voight’s Homecoming, also a young adult novel and also published in 1981; and E. Annie Proulx’s 1993 adult novel, The Shipping News. Goodnight, Mr. Tom and Homecoming both feature protagonists who, like Carl and Harley, have experienced significant trauma and abuse and who find hope in stable relationships. In Goodnight, Mr. Tom, a little boy evacuated to the countryside in the leadup to World War I finds relief from his religious and abusive mother in the love and care of a crochety widower. In Homecoming, the four Tillerman siblings find themselves abandoned by their mother in a parking lot in 1970s America. They suffer many trials and reversals of fortune before they finally find a safe place for themselves on their grandmother’s farm. Like Carl, the Tillerman siblings often find that they must work hard to make themselves useful to the adults they rely on for care. Although The Shipping News is an adult novel, it shares themes of loneliness and belonging with A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove. In both novels, a large, shy, yet kind-hearted protagonist (Quoyle and Carl, respectively) finds himself wrenched from his unhappy yet familiar life  and exiled to a distant coastal area. Both protagonists rely on the kindliness of a female relative and slowly learn to trust and accept the love that others offer them. Finally, readers who enjoyed Carl’s coming-of-age storyline might enjoy The Simple Gift, a poem-novel written by Australian Steven Herrick and published in 2000, which also explores themes of grief and loss, the death of family members, and finding love and belonging.