Dimensions
159 x 235 x 30mm
Set in Van Diemen's Land during the early convict era, Bloodlust tells the story of Alexander Pearce who killed and ate six fellow bolters while on the run from the draconian convict regime at Tasmania's Port Macquarie. What caused Pearce to stray towards the dark side? Was it something in his past? Was it the institutional injustice and violence Pearce suffered at the hands of the church, the courts and the prison authorities, or were there other contributory factors? Bloodlust explores the part starvation, exhaustion and isolation played in the return to an almost primal state in the Tasmanian wilderness. Was Pearce indeed a cannibal, or just a ne'er-do-well who became a victim of a brutal regime and a quirk of nature?
