I am not sure that (if ever) I have read this since 1976 (when it is signed as a Xmas present for P). It is quite hard going, but pretty good.
About an expedition (led by the eponymous German Voss) into the Australian outback in, I guess, the late 19th century. The expedition leads literally nowhere and Voss is murdered by the Aborigines he and (less so his party) have tried to be friendly and tolerant to as they have ventured further into the outback.
What is extraordinary is Voss’ part imagined love affair with - and indeed marriage to - Laura Trevelyan, who have only met briefly and which takes place in parallel in both their minds while she is stuck in suburban Sydney (I think). So the plot runs in parallel between bourgeois Sydney society and Voss’s disastrous expedition.
Laura’s aunt’s servant has an illegitimate daughter which Laura adopts as if their child.
Very good and worth re-reading.
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