READERS GUIDE
Questions and Topics for Discussion
INTRODUCTION
It is 1921. In a mountain-locked valley, Jessie is on the run.
Born wild and brave, by twenty-six she has already lived life as a circus rider, horse and cattle rustler, and convict. But on this fateful night she is just a woman wanting to survive though there is barely any life left in her.
Two men crash through the bushland, desperate to claim the reward on her head: one her lover, the other the law.
But as it has always been for Jessie, it is death, not a man, who is her closest pursuer and companion. And while all odds are stacked against her, there is one who will never give up on her-her own child, who awaits her.
ABOUT COURTNEY COLLINSCourtney Collins lives on the Goulburn River in regional Victoria, Australia. The Untold is her first novel, and she is currently at work on her second novel.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONSWho is the narrator of The Untold? Do you feel the narrator is reliable or unreliable? Does the novel represent the narrator’s experience of Jessie, or Jessie’s life as seen (or not seen) by the narrator?What is the author’s purpose in beginning the narration with the question “If the dirt could speak, whose story would it tell?”What is the importance of Andrew Barlow’s asking Jack Brown, “Are you black enough to be my tracker?”What is the significance of Jack Brown’s relationship with Lay Ping and the Seven Sisters?In the “Prelude to Death” section at the beginning of the book, the author writes about Harry Houdini, the famous escape artist. Why did she choose to begin the book this way? Why is it significant that Jesse’s horse Houdini shares the name with this world-class stunt performer?What does The Untold say about colonial Australia in terms of racism and sexism? How does the landscape reveal the characters? To what extent is it oppressive and to what extent is it redemptive?Consider the motivation for Andrew Barlow’s final actions. Why did he make the decision he made?Discuss the relationship between Andrew Barlow and Jessie. How does it connect with Jessie’s relationship with the boy, Joe, Bill, and the other riders in the gang?Think about Jessie’s role as an escape artist. In what ways does she reveal herself as one?Why does the author divert the narrative in one section to a man who has been buried for forty years? What is his relationship with the other characters, in particular the old woman and the old man who find Jessie by the river?Consider the following quotation: “That is all I know: death is a magic hall of mirrors and within it there is a door and the door opens both ways.” How does The Untold challenge the finite notion of death?What do you make of the ending: “And then, as I felt in my own heart a wish for her freedom, in one single and shimmering note I heard her. She said: I am here“? What do you think this means?
