Book Club: New Norcia’s rich history inspires author Peter Burke in The Silk Merchant’s Son

“I think it is so important that we know our origins,” says Peter Burke. “Not necessarily the version we learned at school, either; we should be prepared to relearn what we thought we knew.” The Perth author’s historical novels tell “stories that WA folk might think they know, but don’t really”, including those of C.Y. O’Connor (in 2015’s Wettening Auralia) and Broome’s pearl divers (in 1998’s The Drowning Dream). Burke’s latest, The Silk Merchant’s Son, draws on the history of the founding of New Norcia, north of Perth, as a Benedictine mission in the 1840s. “My secret aim,” he says, “has always been to trick the reader into becoming interested in WA history.”

How do you think the story you’re telling here about the beginnings of New Norcia might differ from the one many WA readers will be familiar with?