Download or read book The Facing Island written by Jan Bassett and published by Melbourne University Publish. This book was released on 2002 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The discovery of a wonderful primary source—the five-year correspondence from Wilson Tong of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to Edith Harris at Phillip Island—inspired the author to create this rich and unusual memoir, written as she came to terms with a diagnosis of cancer. As the author replies to the long-dead soldier's letters, links and parallels emerge between the young man living with the fear of death and the woman, 80 years later, facing her own death in middle age. She reflects on her life—particularly her childhood on Phillip Island—her work, and her own confrontation with mortality.