Amid the personal obsessions with reputation and legacy in 1897 Chicago, Owen Graves is determined to make something of his life. He accepts the offer of insurance tycoon, Hale Gray, to sail to the SouthSea islands and retrieve artefacts and natives, for an exhibition on the rooftop of Gray’s newly-built skyscraper. Graves sees his potential for a way up in the form of a lump sum with bonuses.

So begins Dominic Smith’s Bright and Distant Shores. Full of optimism, Graves’s hopefulness for the sea journey increases with his engagement to Adelaide, the girl of his dreams. This vision of his future is tempered though, by the billionaire’s son, Jethro, who Graves is contracted to take along and ensure he makes it back in one piece. This fin de siècle story with architecture, fashion, the arts and society all competing for air in the bustle of Chicago, crosses many ‘bright and distant shores’. With the islanders negotiating and bargaining, and knowing full well how destructive a visit from the ‘ghosts’ can be, Smith manages to show us the decimation of islander cultures by trading and religion, but with complications and ambivalences. The ensemble of characters includes white men who have been ruined by trading and religion, especially in Chicago itself.

Bright and Distant Shores is an incredibly well-researched story about culture and progress, both personal and social, and lovers of historical fiction will enjoy the detail, the language and Smith’s fresh perspective.

Pip Newling is from Readings Port Melbourne.