Bereft is a 2010 novel by the Australian author Chris Womersley. In 1919 the First World War is over and Spanish Flu is at epidemic proportions in Australia. Quinn Walker returns from the war to the small town of Flint to face the consequences of his sister’s killing, ageing parents and a police constable who is intent on blaming him for the death.
Australia, 1919.
Quinn Walker returns from the Great War to the New South Wales town of Flint: the birthplace he fled ten years earlier when he was accused of a heinous act.
Aware of the townsmen’s vow to hang him, Quinn takes to the surrounding hills. Here, deciding upon his plan of action, and questioning just what he has returned for, he meets Sadie Fox.
This mysterious girl seems to know, and share, his darkest fear. And, as their bond greatens, Quinn learns what he must do to lay the ghosts of his past, and Sadie’s present, to rest.
