The Mango Tree

The Mango Tree is a Miles Franklin Award-winning novel by Australian author Ronald McKie.^[1]

The Mango Tree

First edition
Author	Ronald McKie
Language	English
Publisher	Collins, Australia
Publication date	1974
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
Pages	211
ISBN	0-00-221586-1
OCLC	1120471
Dewey Decimal	823
LC Class	PZ4.M15754 Man3 PR9619.3.M256
Preceded by	The Heroes
Followed by	The Crushing

Synopsis

The story follows the childhood of a young man, named Jamie, growing up in a country town in Australia during the early 20th century.

Critical reception

Hope Hewitt in The Canberra Times found the author to be "an excellent reporter, quickly setting scene and then swiftly changing gear and catching the cxcitement of events moving too quickly for words. The climax of this book when the fanatic Preacher Jones goes round the bend and rampages off with a gun is a gripping piece of narrative. But good documentary and good reportage are not the same as good imaginative fiction. Their purposes are different; and in trying to concentrate as we clearly are meant to, on Jamie's development to whatever sort of person he is going to be, there needs to be a much greater selection and a different scale of proportions among the too rich material Mr McKie has to draw upon."^[2]

Awards

• Miles Franklin Award, 1974^[3]
• Barbara Ramsden Award, 1974^[4]

Film Adaptation

In 1977, it was adapted into a film of the same name,^[5] directed by Kevin James Dobson, from a script by Michael Pate, and featuring Gerald Fitzgerald, Robert Helpmann and Christopher Pate in the lead roles.^[6]