I have a soft spot for these types of memoirs. It takes courage to go against societal norms and expectations of what your life should be or to uproot your life and make it somewhere else…somewhere “other”…somewhere that encourages you to be a better version of yourself in a place that does not suck the soul out of you. Tasmania was it for this author!
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I read most of the book during a week of high anxiety for our country (and others I’m sure), and it was a delightful and restorative read. 🤗 It also left me feeling “nostalgic” for something indefinable in my mind…a yearning for a different way of life perhaps.
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Fiona and her husband made a life in Tasmania (what the books is about), but this was their second brave attempt to rectify what must have felt like being swallowed by a city…previously they had left all their possessions and arrived in Australia “with two backpacks and a guitar.” They realized they fell back to city living again and this time they had to make a more “intentional” decision to leave the (very hot) city behind.
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I loved reading about the joy, stressors and adjustments to living in a farm in Tasmania, but I also enjoyed the process of two partners adjusting to a new uncharted life. There were sections of their lives together that felt very relatable and the author talks about these incidents with self-deprecating and wry humor that I quite enjoyed.
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I laughed out loud in certain sections…guilty myself of getting a handyman to do work my husband could do much better and then suffering the consequences of shoddy work (and lost money)!lol

Tasmania came alive for me in a realistic way. It’s not easy to make it anywhere, but at least there it seems to be beautiful and soul nourishing: “The sights and sounds, and all the other sensory experiences of the outdoors, never fail to galvanize me.”
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However, there are also the uninvited guests (wallabies, scorpions, pigs, snakes, and “loud” fowl) that come along with the territory and made life interesting.
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My only critique is that I found it difficult to get a sense of time passing (not sure what to call that). I could tell by the references made as to the children but it was not always evident to me. Also, I had to go look up Tasmania. I was initially worried that specific references to certain individuals may have made life difficult for the author (but Come on…who the heck has not had to deal with recalcitrant, ignorant, and disreputable tradesmen…that pipe/toilet scene…I would have been so angry!LOL), but then I found out that Tasmania is a lot larger than I thought (about same size as Ireland or the state of West Virginia in the US according to Google). Besides…boundary setting is always a good thing!🤣 Otherwise you’d be taken advantage of no matter where you live.
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Towards the end I noticed that I slowed my reading pace wanting to savor the last bit and for my “visit” not to end. Looking forward to her next book!

Fiona does a great job of relating the perils and pleasures of discovering real country life. Although her experience was in Tasmania, many of the activities relate world-wide.

There's just an delightful attitude in country folk, it would seem world-wide, that takes getting used to - and that, once you are accustomed to it, you would miss terribly. ( )

It is quite rare for me to read memoirs, but I am so glad I took a chance on this delightful book from Fiona Stocker. Do not for one-minute be put off by ‘Wife’ being in the title. Spoiler alert: They have alpacas, but Fiona has no intention of learning to knit – enough said.

The observations and life moments Stocker candidly shares in Apple Island Wife are ones we can all engage with on some level. Despite living in suburbia, we had a septic tank in our backyard when I was very young – did you? And we all remember that kindergarten or school excursion involving suspect tractor-trailer rides and the perils of petting farmyard animals.

But back to those alpacas they acquired (or the alpacas that acquired them) and more circuitously, some of the hilarious yarns Stocker tells of her family’s experiences with them… Boy, does this lady have an endearing sense of humour. A woman to my own heart, this pragmatist calls a spade a spade. But, her often dryly humorous and irreverent observations avoid the soapbox or negative introspection. Continue reading review>> https://bookloverbookreviews.com/2019/09/apple-island-wife-by-fiona-stocker-revi... ( )