Reviews
The Honeyman & The Hunter
The sea is inside his blood. Cursed, or blessed, on both sides.
When sixteen-year-old Rudra Solace dredges up a long-hidden secret in his father's trawl net, his life in the sleepy fishing village of Patonga shifts dramatically. It is not long before Rudra is leaving Australia behind, bound for India on a journey of discovery and danger.
A wonderfully compelling tale of belonging and loss, of saltwater and mangroves, of migration and accepting change; a story of decisions that, once made, break through family histories like a cyclone swell.
Shortlisted: The Prime Minister's Literary Award 2020
Rudra’s story is tinged with an elegiac melancholy due to the author’s masterful use of phantasmagorical imagery. The reader truly feels the pull of two worlds on Rudra—his father’s hardscrabble life as a poor Australian fisherman and the mystical legacy of his mother’s Indian family.
— Reinhardt Suarez (Booklist 2020)
A richly realized coming-of-age story about discovering one’s roots and the nuances of family relationships.
— Kirkus Reviews 2020
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Book talk
Here, Neil talks about his motivation and inspiration for writing the novel.
The honeymen of the Sundarbans
In 2019, Neil was lucky enough to visit the Sundarbans. He stayed at the Sundarbans Eco Village run by Rajesh and his friends Ajay and Mowgli. In the video below, Rajesh shows traditional honey collecting and comes off second best to the angry bees,