Book Review: The Survivors

Sometimes it's about the journey, not the destination. This holds true for Jane Harper's atmospheric, vividly painted new novel The Survivors. When Sydney-based physiotherapist Kieran, accompanied by his wife Mia and their new-born baby Audrey, pays a visit to the Tasmanian coastal town of Evelyn Bay to help his mother out with packing up their family home before moving his dementia-afflicted father into a nursing facility, he finds himself still tormented by the guilt, memory and responsibility for his brother's death while attempting to rescue him during a freak storm 12 years ago. The grim association aside, things take a turn for the worse when a young waitress is found murdered on the beach a day after his return, taking the town's inhabitants back to a decade-old disappearance of another young girl in the midst of the same storm, and in the process resurfaces long-buried fears and resentments, forcing Kieran to see the past and present in a new light. The title refers both to a statue that memorialises a shipwreck and to the citizens of a tight-knit beach community whose fortunes ebb and flow with the holiday season. The Survivors is every bit as accomplished and compelling as Harper's previous books, equal parts contemplative and haunting, while simultaneously exploring the ravages and corrosive effects of grief and guilt despite its not-so-convincing ending. A layered and nuanced mystery.