1
of
1
The Sooterkin
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 184 ratings, 24 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2900
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The Sooterkin
$2900
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Latest News
Jon Toogood visits Book Hero
We were so honoured to have Aotearoa's own royal rock legend Jon Toogood visit Book...
New Hero Alert! Meet Liam - our new Bookstore Hero
We’re thrilled to welcome Liam to the Book Hero team! You’ll find him in our...
Celebrating Bird of the Year 2026 with Bird Books
Today I've got a couple of INCREDIBLE bird books as well as a reading list...
Amelia's Favourite Puzzle Vibe: What Makes a Puzzle Cosy?
What makes a puzzle feel cosy? Amelia shares her favourite puzzle vibe, from bookshops and...
The Book Briefing: 23rd September
Another busy day in the reading world with new book announcements and reveals, events happening...
See moreFew people have ever laid eyes on a sooterkin, but in the winter of 1821 Sarah Dyer gives birth to the strangest infant ever seen in Van Dieman's land. It is a creature more seal than human, and all Hobart town knows something extraordinary has happened. Funny and mesmerising, this is a compelling novel.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
On a squally afternoon in the winter of 1821, Sarah Dyer gives birth to the strangest child ever seen in Van Diemen's Land, a thing more seal than human. The Reverend Mr Kidney at first suspects a virgin birth. Mr Sculley, an anatomist and man of science, hails it as the antipodean answer to the elusive Dutch sooterkin.
The pup is a joy to its parents and a welcome companion to their nine-year-old son, Ned. But when a well-dressed stranger arrives bearing a modest proposal for the infant's future, no-one foresees the trouble that lies ahead.
The Sooterkin is a vividly imagined and wickedly funny tale of an upside-down world turned inside out.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781876485023
Publisher: Text Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 01 April 1999
Country: Australia
Imprint: The Text Publishing Company
Audience: Tertiary education
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 17.0mm
Width: 136.0mm
Height: 213.0mm
Weight: 254g
Pages: 224
Collections
About the Author
Authors Bio, not available
Also by Tom Gilling
View all-
Milat
Milat - the serial killer who preyed on young hitchhikers. The backpackers - the innocent victims of a brutal murderer. Belanglo - a place that became synonymous with pure evil. It was the biggest and most complex manhunt in Australian history, an investigation that gripped a nation. Behind the many false leads and dead ends, precious clues emerged that pointed...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$2999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Miles Mcginty
Miles McGinty and Isabel Dowling are born on the same night in 1856 into different worlds. Miles is the illegitimate son of a great actress, Isabel a rebellious daughter whose mother is desperate to marry her off. Both are destined to defy convention - and gravity.Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$2900Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Dreamland
The long-awaited new novel by the author of The Sooterkin and Miles McGinty. It was just a little lie. But it has landed Nick Carmody in serious trouble. It didn't seem much—to say he was the one driving Danny Grogan's car when it was caught by a speed camera. And Danny's billionaire father has promised to make the lie worth...Paperback$3800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Bastard Behind the Lines
The way I look at it is this... When you're behind the line and get yourself into trouble, you've got to get your bloody self out irrespective of anybody else. That's why I like it. Scottish-born but a Queenslander to the bone, Jock McLaren was a true Australian hero. As a prisoner he escaped twice, first from Changi and later...Paperback$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Diggers of Kapyong
'In the only war in which Australian soldiers ever faced off against the might of Mao, this is a revealing and spellbinding account of an extraordinary victory.' - Peter FitzSimons We charged and we began to get shot down . . . there were so many bullets coming that it was like walking, running into a very stiff breeze. Most...Paperback$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Start Digging, You Bastards!
'We were to go through and take on targets of opportunity, to shoot up anything we could. Never at any stage can I remember any plan of us coming back, none of that was ever talked about ... We felt it was a suicide mission.' July 1942: the North African campaign rages and the Allies have been forced to retreat...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Griffith Wars
'Donald Mackay was not just an innocent victim tragically struck down by a criminal act. He was a casualty of the actual fight against organised crime ... killed on active service, as it were ... His name should never be forgotten, his passing must not be allowed to be in vain.' The assassination of Donald Mackay was meant to solve...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Witness
'That bastard's still alive? I'm going to kill him with my bare hands.' POW Bill Moxham At the Australian war crimes trials that followed World War II, one prosecution witness stood out: Warrant Officer Bill Sticpewich. During his three years in the infamous Sandakan POW camp, Sticpewich had seen hundreds of fellow prisoners die of starvation, sickness, and overwork. Others...Paperback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Lost Battalions
They were thrown into a hopeless fight against an overwhelming enemy. Later, hundreds died as prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and in the freezing coal mines of Taiwan and Japan. Through it all, wrote Weary Dunlop, they showed fortitude beyond anything I could have believed possible. Until now, the story of the 2000 diggers marooned on Java in...Paperback$3699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Evil Life
The Calabrian mafia is Australia's oldest, largest and most ruthless crime syndicate, trafficking drugs worth billions of dollars and laundering the proceeds through sophisticated international networks. Enforcing discipline with age-old tools of violence and intimidation, the Calabrians have been responsible for nearly 40 murders in Australia since the mid-1970s and many more before that. Mafia families in Australia report directly...PaperbackSold Out -
Things I Carry Around
A born storyteller, Troy Cassar-Daley has at last turned his talent to sharing his own inspiring life. 'Troy's achievements are many, and perhaps the finest may be his ability to make us listen to his heart.' Joy McKean For the first time, Troy talks about his early life - how his parent's divorce changed things for him, about missing his...PaperbackSold Out -
Grog
The marines on the First Fleet refused to sail without it. Convicts risked their necks to get hold of it. Rum built a hospital and sparked a revolution, made fortunes, and ruined lives. In a society with few luxuries, liquor was power. It played a crucial role, not just in the lives of individuals like James Squire—the London chicken thief...PaperbackSold Out
More from Historical Fiction
View all-
The Parisian Chapter
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library and The Librarians of Rue de Picardie comes a charming and cinematic novel following a young woman from Montana who lands a job in the American Library in Paris, where she discovers the power of storytelling and writes her own Parisian chapter.'Stirring and rich with detail' New York Times...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Inferno
AD 60. Nero Claudius Caesar is Emperor. He is feared for his temper. He is known to be intoxicated by the power he wields. And why not? The Roman Empire stretches from the wilds of Britain to the deserts of Parthia. Nero is god of all he surveys. Yet dangerous traitors lie close at hand. Generals commanding legions. Senators whispering...Paperback$3100Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Circle of Days
From the master of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world's greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge. A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his...Hardback$4499Elsewhere:$6000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
The Soldier's Daughter
The heart-stopping new blockbuster by the bestselling author of The Fallen Woman. Violet Nash has grown up in the shadows of her father Charlie's shattered dreams. It's been years since he walked away from the battlefields of France, a WWI hero but his heart in tatters, only to see it broken all over again in the worst way possible. In...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
The Girl with the Suitcase
The enthralling new novel from the 10-million-copy, No. 1 bestselling author. London 1941 When Mary meets a glamorous stranger named Elizabeth, she realises their lives couldn't be more different. But when an air raid forces them to take shelter underground, Mary's life is set to change forever. After waking up in hospital, injured but alive, the nurse mistakes her for...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
The Lost Bookshop
Evie Woods' stunning new novel The Story Collector is available now. The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets. ‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’ On a quiet street in...Paperback$2200Elsewhere:$2500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
All the Diamonds in Paris
Kristin Harmel is firmly in the top echelon of WW2 storytellers - HEATHER MORRIS A master storyteller - SANTA MONTEFIORE The best at sweeping historical drama - KELLY HARMS A dazzling diamond of a novel - HAZEL GAYNOR * Paris, 1942: Anabel Martinet is a jewel thief, descended from a family that has spent centuries stealing from the unkind and...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
The Listeners
‘By turns a beautiful love story, a fascinating glimpse into the horrors of history and a haunting tale of loyalty and courage. A marvel of storytelling’ CHRIS WHITAKER, bestselling author of All the Colours of the Dark The Avallon Hotel offers unrivalled luxury in the wild Appalachian Mountains, its curative sweetwater washing away the troubles of high society. June 'Hoss'...Paperback$3600Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Atmosphere
The new novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six. An epic novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle programme and the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits. In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
The Song of Achilles
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a brilliantly crafted retelling of the ancient Greek epic of Achilles and Patroclus, transforming the classical myth into a profoundly moving love story. Set against the richly depicted backdrop of Greece during the heroically tumultuous age, the narrative follows Patroclus, an awkward and exiled young prince, who is taken to the court...Paperback$2100Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Mythos
Mythos by Stephen Fry is a compelling retelling of the classic Greek myths, reimagined with a wit and elegance that only Fry can deliver. This volume transports the reader to a world where mortals intertwine with the divine, and the timeless tales unfold in a spellbinding narrative that captures the imagination. From the cosmogony—the birth of the cosmos—to the exploits...Paperback$2200Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah is a classic storyteller and The Four Winds sees her at the top of her game - Matt Haig Powerful and compelling - Delia Owens, number one international bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing A story of love, family, unbreakable bonds, bravery and hope. I loved this book so much! - Christy Lefteri, bestselling author of The...Paperback$2000Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Historical Fiction lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
