LARGE SIZE HARD COVER WITH DUST JACKET EDITION..NO  INSCRIPTIONS HOWEVER A TEAR ON THE INSIDE BLANK PAGE......WILL COMBBINE BOOKS TO SAVE ON POSTAGE WHERE POSSIBLE....mark on front cover 2009 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards ? Highly CommendeA pair of ambitious young British entrepreneurs, Malcolm McEacharn and Andrew McIlwraith, charter a steamer with the aim of towing an iceberg from Antarctica to Sydney. The success of the venture transforms Sydney, and McEacharn who later becomes lord mayor of Melbourne.Covering the eighty-plus years of the life of Minnie O'Brien, The Banyan Tree is a rich saga of rural Ireland in the twentieth century. In prose as lushly layered as the land it describes, Nolan lovingly details the triumphs and tragedies of this spirited woman, who struggles to keep body and soul, as well as her modest hopes, alive. While her three grown children have long since moved away, she is determined to keep her family's farm from the tightening grip of her unscrupulous neighbor, in the hope that one day her youngest will return to claim what is rightfully his.