AustLit logo

AustLit

Gertrud Hemmel Gertrud Hemmel i(A96515 works by)
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
6 6 y separately published work icon The Touch Colleen McCullough , ( trans. Gertrud Hemmel with title Beröringen ) Stockholm : Forum , 2004 Z1078073 2003 single work novel historical fiction Alexander Kinross is remembered in his native Scotland only as a shiftless boilermaker's apprentice and a godless rebel. But, when he writes from Australia to summon his bride, his Scottish relatives realise that he has made a fortune on the goldfields and is a man to be reckoned with. Arriving in Sydney after a difficult voyage, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Drummond meets her husband-to-be and discovers that he frightens and repels her. Offered no choice, she marries him and is whisked at once across wild, uninhabited countryside to Alexander's own town, named Kinross after himself. In the crags above it lies the world's richest gold mine. Isolated in Alexander's great house and with no company save Chinese servants, Elizabeth finds that the intimacies of marriage do not prompt her husband to enlighten her about his past life - or his present one. She has no idea that he still has a mistress, the sensuous, tough, outspoken Ruby Costevan. Captured by their very different natures, Alexander resolves to have both Elizabeth and Ruby - why should he not? He has the fabled M̀idas Touch', a combination of curiosity, boldness and intelligence that he applies to every situation and which only fails him when it comes to these two women. For while Ruby loves Alexander desperately, Elizabeth does not. (Source: Trove)
X