Theresa Smith's Blog, page 131
July 3, 2018
Behind the Pen with Majok Tulba
Today I warmly welcome Majok Tulba to Behind the Pen. Majok’s latest novel, When Elephant’s Fight, was released on Monday (you can read my review here). It is such a moving and thought provoking novel and I am so pleased to be able to give you all some further insight into the story via this interview with Majok.
[image error]How much of When Elephants Fight is inspired by your own experiences?
My experiences of the civil war in Sudan are very broad and ongoing with my connections to family still living there. The perspective of the novel is not to reflect me but the broad experiences of so many vulnerable families and children still living in Sudan.
What propelled you to choose writing about these experiences in novel form rather than as a memoir?
I am only one man and my personal experiences are limited in contrast to the nation’s experiences and that of its children. A memoir would be about me but my novels enable the story of so many more to be heard.
What comes after a refugee camp in terms of getting from there to here? With so many hundreds of thousands of people living there, how does a family or an individual go about this process?
Painfully slow and hope quenching time is spent in the camp while the wheels of different governments decide how many refugees they will accept. Then there is the paperwork – mountains of it, to prove who you are and what visas you are suitable for. You have to write or retell personal accounts of why you are a refugee and why you want to leave. The process tears open old wounds and memories as you have to recount your experiences to justify your acceptance as a refugee to a new country. Then there is just the sheer luck factor – the right UN worker who vouches for you or remembers you when there is an opportunity.
I can hardly even imagine what it must be like to come to Australia for a new life after having come from what is described in When Elephants Fight. If you cast your mind back to when you first came to Australia, what was the most difficult thing to adjust to, in terms of lifestyle? What was the best thing you encountered once you were settled?
The most difficult aspect of arriving in Australia was the cultural shock of wondering if I had the survival skills to find my way in this new strange place. You go from knowing your place in the refugee camp to where everything is new and not many around you understand your background. It was difficult to make a new circle of friends while struggling with the language and the social niceties. However, the feeling of being safe at last was wonderful. To be able to move around freely without fear of attack and the access to food and services such as healthcare was overwhelmingly wonderful.
I was struck by what a fine line it is between hope and despair and I could see how life in the refugee camp could harden and embitter a person. In your time there, did many people leave the camp and join up with the South Sudanese rebels?
Many people become wary and cynical from their experiences. However, many do not join the South Sudanese rebels because of their experiences but rather many feel vulnerable in the camps which are not really a place of refuge, and they wish to have the security of a gun to protect themselves.
You have been in Australia now for seventeen years. Has much has changed for the people of South Sudan during that time?
South Sudan has still not experienced peace. Though the war with the North has settled there is still civil unrest within the different power groups within Southern Sudan. Most importantly, South Sudanese families are still not free of fear and able to resume normal life.
[image error]What are your hopes for When Elephants Fight?
I wanted to raise the awareness of the plight and background of many refugees from South Sudan. Australians were on the whole ignorant of the issues and experiences of the people fleeing from Sudan, the novel gives them insight and perhaps raises empathy levels for the traumas many have experienced. It is also a novel about the rites of passage of any young man, finding his own identity, determining his values and maturing into adulthood. These issues are universal for all young people and though Juba (the main character) is Sudanese, in many ways he could be any young man growing into manhood.
About the Book:
In the South Sudanese village of Pacong, Juba is young and old at the same time. Forced to grow up quickly in the civil war, he is nonetheless fun-loving as well as smart. But his little world cannot deflect the conflict raging around it and soon he must flee the life he loves.
Ahead lies a long trek to a refugee camp, a journey arduous and fraught. When at last it ends, Juba comes to wonder if there’s any such thing as safe haven in his country. Yet life in the camp is not all bad. There can be intense joy amid the deprivation, there are angels as well as demons.
Poised part way between heaven and hell, When Elephants Fight draws a horrifying picture of what humanity can do to itself, but Juba’s is a story of transcendence and resilience, even exultation.
Majok Tulba’s debut novel, Beneath the Darkening Sky, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and likened to the work of Nam Le, Markus Zusak and Primo Levi. No less brilliant, When Elephants Fight is an important testimony of the harrowing lives of refugees.
Trade Paperback: ISBN 9781926428437 Hamish Hamilton
EBook: ISBN 9781760144425 Penguin eBooks
About the Author:
Majok Tulba was born in South Sudan and came to Australia in 2001. His first novel, Beneath the Darkening Sky, won the 2014 Kathleen Mitchell Award, and in 2013 was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Commonwealth Book Prize. He was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists of the Year in 2013. Majok is the founder of Okay Microfinance, a social enterprise launched in 2016 that aims to improve education for girls and community health, and to find sustainable solutions for families to break free of the cycle of poverty in South Sudan. He lives in Sydney with his wife and children.
July 2, 2018
New Release Book Review: A Room at the Manor by Julie Shackman
About the Book:
When her Maltese love affair turns sour, Lara McDonald returns to her quiet Scottish hometown of Fairview heartbroken, yet determined – instead of looking for another PR position, she decides to follow her dream of baking. She impulsively takes the first job offered and finds herself working for local dragon Kitty Walker in her tea room, True Brew.
Lara’s life is full of surprises, however, not the least being an unlikely friendship forged with one of Kitty’s elderly customers, the former laird Hugo Carmichael. The Carmichael family has lived at the beautiful Glenlovatt Manor for almost three hundred years and, although in need of renovation, Hugo, his son and grandson currently make it their home.
There’s something about Lara that Hugo likes, and when Hugo suddenly passes away, Lara is stunned to discover she is mentioned in his will. But not everyone is happy with the old Laird’s faith in Lara.
A story of love, family, hope and trust, A Room at the Manor will delight every reader keen to find their place in the world.
My Thoughts:
A Room at the Manor is a truly delightful novel. With its romantic sparks, Scottish humour and mouth watering tea shop treats, this is a novel that will warm you through to your toes – and have you wishing you were a better baker than you actually are!
Lara is moving on with her life, but it’s not moving fast enough until the passing of the local former Laird, Hugh, gives it a definite boost with instructions contained within his will for Lara to turn a particular room in his family manor into a teashop. Showing great faith in Lara, I enjoyed watching Hugh’s wish come into fruition as she transformed from a frustrated waitress into a dynamo business woman.
I don’t read a whole lot of romance, but when I do, this is exactly the sort of story I hope for. Lara’s ambition and success were separate to her romance with Hugh’s grandson, one not dependent on the other, and I liked that so much. First and foremost, this story was about Lara taking the reins back on her own life, growing as a person, a friend, a daughter, and an employer. That she got to find love along the way was a nice addition to the mix.
Julie has a lovely tone to her writing, inflected with a dash of Scottish humour, with a smooth flow and engaging dialogue. There is a terrific cast of characters to keep this novel moving along, the dynamics between them all fresh and compelling. I liked the slight fairytale slant to this story with its rags to riches offering, its handsome prince and the magical ending. A gorgeous novel to curl up with this winter, but be warned, you will want cake. The creations Lara and her team come up with for the teashop will have you dreaming of cake long after you close the book. Highly recommended reading!
July 1, 2018
New Release Book Review: When Elephants Fight by Majok Tulba
About the Book:
In the South Sudanese village of Pacong, Juba is young and old at the same time. Forced to grow up quickly in the civil war, he is nonetheless fun-loving as well as smart. But his little world cannot deflect the conflict raging around it and soon he must flee the life he loves.
Ahead lies a long trek to a refugee camp, a journey arduous and fraught. When at last it ends, Juba comes to wonder if there’s any such thing as safe haven in his country. Yet life in the camp is not all bad. There can be intense joy amid the deprivation, there are angels as well as demons.
Poised part way between heaven and hell, When Elephants Fight draws a horrifying picture of what humanity can do to itself, but Juba’s is a story of transcendence and resilience, even exultation.
Majok Tulba’s debut novel, Beneath the Darkening Sky, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and likened to the work of Nam Le, Markus Zusak and Primo Levi. No less brilliant, When Elephants Fight is an important testimony of the harrowing lives of refugees.
My Thoughts:
“I hear the cry of a child born in the time of war; I hear the cry of children as the elephants fight; We will all go home my child; When the elephants stop their fighting…”
When Elephants Fight is one of the most amazing novels I’ve read in a very long time. It’s a profoundly important story with a tight grip on authenticity that is rare in novel form, yet so highly sought after. I had, at best, a slim knowledge on the situation in South Sudan, even less on what life in a refugee camp might entail, but Majok’s clear and concise style has opened my eyes wide, and while what they have seen is both shocking and horrific, I feel enriched, for want of a better way to put it. To think that one can survive such horror and deprivation with so many odds stacked against them; it’s truly incredible.
The novel is split into two parts: before the refugee camp and then inside the refugee camp. At the beginning of the novel, there is a somewhat idyllic atmosphere, despite the fact that war has been raging for decades. Villagers live out their lives as best they can, the ever present threat from the Sudanese government tempering everything, along with the constant fear of the South Sudanese rebels. Life was tough, far tougher than we in Australia could ever experience, yet the sense of community was rich and the culture vibrant. There was happiness and hope and I enjoyed the way Majok recreated daily life for the reader.
Then the soldiers of the Sudanese government attacked the village and the horror of this is beyond anything I could have envisaged. I simply couldn’t tear my eyes from the pages, Majok’s skill as a writer coming to the fore as he balanced horror with truth, minus any gratuitous overplay. I was swamped with fear and absolute disbelief at all of these people becoming displaced in one violent swoop. And then, to compound the horror, this is where the South Sudanese rebels step in, ready to scoop up boys who are keen for revenge and to pressure those who aren’t, and to kidnap girls to ‘populate their future armies’. In addition to these threats, there is the landscape of Africa, hostile and populated with carnivorous beasts. Suffice to say, the tension in this first part of the novel was high, incredibly so.
For those fortunate enough to have survived the lions, the scorpions, the snakes, the lack of food and water, the relentless sun burning down and the disease that can run rife within a teeming mass of people, the next stop is the refugee camp, glittering on the horizon like an oasis. Well, it’s the next stop, but it’s no oasis. The best way to describe the refugee camp is in this passage I’ve cobbled together from a series of pages early on in the second part of the novel:
“She asks the man leading us how many people there are in this camp and he tells her eight hundred thousand. At first we think he’s got it wrong, or we haven’t heard right, but when we ask again he repeats it.
‘There are people here from every tribe in South Sudan,’ he says. ‘This war . . .’ He shakes his head. Then he tells us there are just under a thousand aid workers here, from twenty-two different organisations. Mama holds my hand tightly and I can feel her thinking the same thing. How can there be enough food and water for so many people? Then he tells us they’ve run out of tents and will bring us one when they get more. ‘In the meantime,’ he says, ‘if you could build yourselves a shelter just here.’ He points to a bare patch of ground.
‘But where will we sleep?’ Thiko’s mother asks.
‘Don’t worry,’ he says, ‘we’re working on getting more tents as soon as possible. We’ll have them to you as soon as they come in. Just hang tight for now.’
‘What about food?’ I ask. ‘And water?’
He scratches his chin as if he’s not sure what to tell us. ‘We’re working on the food too. There are two wells in this zone. You need to be prepared to wait a while for water.’
Later we discover that waiting a while often means hours at a time.
A month or so after our arrival, the UN supplies still haven’t arrived. It seems no one was prepared for this number of people in the camp.
To think how hard we longed to reach this camp while we were walking here. Only to discover more suffering. Sometimes I’m not sure where I’d rather be, here in the camp or back on the path, with all its dangers.
There’s no pride here in this camp. Pride is gone and buried. Now it’s only about survival.”
The deprivation within the refugee camp was stunning. It really blew my mind. And the ration card system was appalling. There were people in the camp who got ration cards entitling them to food and supplies, but not everyone got a card, so there were hundreds of thousands of people who were let into the camp but told to fend for themselves. Crime was rife and survival was truly up to the individual. I can clearly see why young men join the rebels, why they might reach that point where they feel they have no option. This horrified me, more than anything else, that a safe haven could prove so utterly the opposite of its intention. And it was not safe, there weren’t enough UN soldiers to protect from insurgents, which when they came, were from Uganda. Ugandan rebels intent on stealing supplies for their own cause. Even writing this review, I’m sitting here in disbelief that Africa is a continent with so much turmoil, so many threats; its beauty tainted and defiled by war spread from one corner to the next.
Despite all of this, When Elephants Fight is an incredibly hopeful novel filled with brave people and love in abundance. That’s what is so startling about it, that in the midst of such horror and danger, humanity can push on. People with nothing can still hope and people who help others selflessly can find themselves and their situations improving. I can see this novel becoming a recommended text for high school reading in the future, it has so much educational value combined with a page turning quality. I’m not going to comment on the feelings this novel has generated within me and how that makes me feel about Australia’s processing of refugees. This is a book review, not a political commentary, however I do think it would be impossible to read this without then, by extension, having an increased ability to regard the plight of refugees with compassion and empathy, rather than fear and suspicion. Sometimes you can be aware of situations but not really know anything about them. I know more now than what I did before, and it doesn’t sit well with me. The weight of this novel has left me feeling the burden of my privilege.
June 30, 2018
Book A Day: Fortune’s Rocks by Anita Shreve
Day 4:
Fortune’s Rocks
Fortune’s Rocks was my first taste of Anita Shreve’s writing and it well and truly hooked me onto her novels. I own and have read them all. Her passing earlier this year to cancer saddened me. She had such talent, an incredible ability write weighty novels with a minimum of fuss. I’m going to miss her new releases.
Chronologically, Fortune’s Rocks is the first novel in Shreve’s tetralogy to be linked by their setting in a large beach house on the New Hampshire coast that used to be a convent. It was followed by Sea Glass, The Pilot’s Wife and Body Surfing. I’ve read all four of these novels, and enjoyed all of them.
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In the summer of 1899, Olympia Biddeford, a privileged, intelligent and confident 15-year-old who is vacationing with her family at Fortune’s Rocks, falls in love with a married 41-year-old doctor and journalist, John Haskell. Their passionate affair, and subsequent discovery, produces a son and leads to far-reaching consequences that span several decades.
June 29, 2018
Bingo! The Yellow House by Emily O’Grady
It’s bingo Saturday once again – that rolled around fast! The square I’ve filled for this entry is:
A prize winning book
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The Yellow House was recently announced as winner of the 2018 Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award – an award for an unpublished manuscript to an author under the age of 35.
The Yellow House is highly accessible literary fiction, perfect for fans of Little Gods and The Choke. The child narration hits a perfect note and balances the horror and evil that is present within the story. In examining the legacy of violence and crime within a family, it challenges the reader to examine their own conscience and perceptions about how far reaching guilt exactly is. Where does the line of guilt end? When does judgement stop? I’m still thinking about this novel and expect to be for some time.
This year I’m playing book bingo with Mrs B’s Book Reviews. On the first and third Saturday of each month, we’ll post our latest entry. We’re not telling each other in advance what we’re currently reading or what square we’ll be filling next; any coincidences are exactly that – and just add to the fun!
Follow our card below if you’d like to join in, and please let us know if you do so we can check out what you’re reading.
Now I’m off to check out what square Mrs B has marked off for this round. See you over there!
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June 28, 2018
Book A Day: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Day 3:
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Clearly, my book a day challenge is not an everyday thing like it’s probably intended, but I’m a big fan of making challenges work in with your own needs and what I need right now is a challenge that I can post on the days when I don’t have any other posts and this one’s perfect for that!
So, today’s book is The Goldfinch, a massive book that many say was ‘over-written’ but in my opinion was utterly perfect in every way. I thought it was clever, illuminating and absorbing. I read it with an online bookclub and I was pretty much the only person who finished it.
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It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don’t know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.
As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.
The Goldfinch combines vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and suspense, while plumbing with a philosopher’s calm the deepest mysteries of love, identity, and art. It is an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.
June 27, 2018
New Release Book Review: Love Will Tear Us Apart by Holly Seddon
About the Book:
Fearing eternal singledom, childhood friends Kate and Paul make the age-old vow that if they don’t find love by thirty, they will marry each other. Years later, with the deadline of their 30th birthdays approaching, the unlikely couple decide to keep their teenage promise. After all, they are such good friends. Surely that’s enough to make a marriage? Now, on the eve of their 10th wedding anniversary, they will discover that love between men and women is more complex, and more precarious, than they could ever have imagined. As Kate struggles with a secret that reaches far into their past, will the couple’s vow become the very thing that threatens their future?
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this novel so much. I went into it not knowing what to expect, having never read a Holly Seddon novel before, with only the blurb as my guide. Right from the very first page I wanted to crawl into this novel and stay by Kate’s side, be her best friend, and hold her hand through the tough times, which for Kate, were plentiful.
To celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary, Kate and Paul, along with their two children, spend a week on a winter mini-break in a Cornwall cottage. Kate has found a letter that Paul has had hidden away and the secret is burning a hole in her pocket. She plans on confronting him at the end of the week, after they have celebrated their anniversary dinner. We don’t know what the letter is about and throughout the novel there is plenty of opportunity to guess – and be wrong! As the week unfolds, we are treated to reflections from Kate on her own life along with her shared history with Paul. They met when they were eight, and now, at forty, they have spent so much of their lives together, first as best friends and then as a married couple. Each recollection is like a memory square being laid down into the quilt that is Kate’s and Paul’s shared history. I loved the way this novel was set out, with three clear timelines being followed in a consecutive pattern.
Paul’s parents, Viv and Mick, play a big part in this story. They take Kate into their homes and their hearts very early on and if not for them, Kate would have had a very different life as an adolescent and teenager. She wouldn’t be the first person to love a man for his family. Viv especially was a beautiful soul, a very caring woman who loved Kate like a daughter. I appreciated these positive interactions between Kate and Viv, as well as Kate and Mick. They certainly played a big part in shaping Kate into the woman, and mother, that she was. There were times I felt that Kate possibly appreciated Viv and Mick more that Paul himself!
Kate has some pretty rotten things happen to her along the way. There’s a very well handled sub-plot that examines the abuse of power within a workplace and the shocking way that women can bear the brunt of a fall out while men, in superior roles, can keep on climbing the corporate ladder unaffected. It was really heartbreaking to witness Kate’s life falling apart during her twenties and made me quite angry as well. Through all this, Paul is an ever present and supportive friend, a real rock for Kate in a sea of uncertainty.
“He knows me to my bones.”
There was so much nostalgia generated for me from Kate’s recollections. I am only five years younger than her, so there was a lot of tripping down memory lane for me within this novel. Holly created such an authentic atmosphere for each of her eras, with all of the little things included as well as the significant. This is a novel about friendship and love, about life with all of its highs and lows, about marriage and parenthood. This story is as much about the journey as it is about the big reveal. So well written and so absorbing, it squeezed my heart, brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face. One of my top reads this winter.
“…stamp all over the eggshells you walk on around me. Piss me off, I’ll still love you. Say no to me, stand up to me, get a job, if that’s what you want. Or don’t. Get fat, get old, laugh, take risks, have adventures. Let the kids see us argue and the kids see us joke. Let them see what love looks like for us.”
Thanks is extended to Allen and Unwin for providing me with a copy of Love Will Tear Us Apart for review.
[image error]About the Author:
Holly Seddon is a full time writer, living slap bang in the middle of Amsterdam with her husband James and a house full of children and pets. Holly has written for newspapers, websites and magazines since her early 20s after growing up in the English countryside, obsessed with music and books. Her first novel, Try Not to Breathe, was published worldwide in 2016 and became a national and international bestseller. Her second novel, Don’t Close Your Eyes, was published in July 2017.
[image error]Love Will Tear Us Apart
Published by Atlantic
Imprint – Corvus
Available in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook
Released in Australia via Allen & Unwin 27 June 2018
June 26, 2018
New Release Book Review: The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
About the Book:
Two summers, decades apart. Two women whose lives are forever entwined. And a house that holds the secrets that could free them both.
At twenty-six, Lillian feels ancient and exhausted. Her marriage to Charles Oberon has not turned out the way she thought it would. To her it seems she is just another beautiful object captured within the walls of Cloudesley, her husband’s Chilterns manor house. But, with a young stepson and a sister to care for, Lillian accepts there is no way out for her. Then Charles makes an arrangement with an enigmatic artist visiting their home and her world is turned on its head.
Maggie Oberon ran from the hurt and resentment she caused. Half a world away, in Australia, it was easier to forget, to pretend she didn’t care. But when her grandmother, Lillian, falls ill Maggie must head back to Cloudesley. Forced to face her past, she will learn that all she thought was real, all that she held so close, was never as it seemed.
My Thoughts:
The Peacock Summer is a brilliantly atmospheric story of illusion and heartbreak, orbiting around an illustrious English estate filled with priceless treasures and the darkest of secrets. While I was tempted to simply devour this novel, I slowed down and lingered over it, because it’s that sort of story, where you want to just immerse yourself for as long as possible, so elegant was the writing and so consuming was the story. The house itself, Cloudesley, had a presence all of its own, Hannah Richell’s beautifully descriptive prose breathing life into this inanimate fixture:
“She runs a hand over the huge, faded tapestry hanging across the wall – then turns to climb the curved staircase to her own room. Halfway up she stops and listens. There is no scrabble of dog paws on the tiled floor, no shuffle of newspaper pages from the library, no distant murmur from her grandmother’s radio. There is nothing; not even the glug of water moving through old pipes. This house, that has witnessed so much throughout the years – dinner parties and laughter, conversation and arguments, dancing and music – a house that has seen so much life, had so many people pass through its doors, stands utterly silent. It is unnerving to be its only occupant. What echoes would she hear – what stirrings from the past – if she only knew what to listen for?”
Stories revolving around houses and the mysteries from the past contained within their walls have always been a favourite of mine and Cloudesly guarded its secrets well.
For the most part, this story broke my heart. Lillian was such a beautiful young woman but life had dealt her a very unfortunate hand. Had she been more of a selfish woman, she would have undoubtedly suffered less, yet it was her capacity for love and her unselfish nature that made her who she was. The Peacock Summer is a dark story, far darker than I anticipated, and it’s all the more absorbing because of it.
“…her marriage to Charles is a complicated, volatile landscape. There are so many unspoken rules; so many uncertain dictates; so many fluctuating emotions to anticipate and interpret. She knows he has seen too much – lost too much. She does not, for one moment, underestimate the damage he has endured in those unspoken years away at war, followed so closely by the tragic loss of his first wife. She only wishes she were more adept at navigating her life with him, better able to understand the man she now finds herself bound to. For each day she wakes and steps out into the marriage, she feels as though she balances precariously, never quite sure if the ground she steps on is firm or quicksand, sucking her down into one of Charles’s more erratic moods.”
My first impression of Charles Oberon was that he was a prized arse. He really was a piece of work, taking great pleasure in publicly humiliating his wife, never failing to remind her that she was at his mercy, the beneficiary of his generosity, nothing without him – the usual misogynistic posturing that can be associated with men who make a hobby out of devaluing women. This behaviour of his extended to his young son, so I quickly formed a picture of Charles Oberon that was not in his favour. Yet as the story progressed, and more of him was revealed, I was horrified by his true nature. He may have suffered trauma in the war, and lost his first wife shortly after, but he was a monster to his family. Coupled with wealth and power, Lillian didn’t stand a chance against him, she was utterly trapped, a fact that she was very much aware of. Charles himself was a complex character; it’s not an easy thing to bring a person with such duality to life on the page. Charismatic and powerful, yet horrendously violent towards his family. Each scene containing Charles was finely drawn out, the tension for the reader mirroring the tension for his family. Hannah Richell kept his volatility entirely unpredictable, heightening the suspense throughout. Through Lillian’s relationship with Albie, Hannah Richell skilfully demonstrated the chains that can bind a woman to an untenable situation. Little Albie broke my heart and I forgave adult Albie much on account of the brutality he not only experienced, but also witnessed, while growing up. There was so much sadness within this family, so much loss, so much anger and devastation, so many wasted years of life; all owing to the tyranny of one man.
Maggie, Lillian’s granddaughter, was a bit hit and miss for me. I admired her devotion to Lillian, but I always struggle with sketchy characters who can’t seem to work out what they want so instead of trying to figure it out, they run away and sleep with random strangers. Repeatedly. In Albie, I could see the reason for this, but in Maggie, it appeared self indulgent. There was too much self-flagellation and self-pity initially, but she grew on me a little more by the end. I appreciated how Hannah Richell set the story up for her to uncover the past herself, rather than simply being told by Lillian via a reflective story or by reading diary entries – a little too common in dual timeline historical fiction nowadays for my liking. The way the past unfolded in The Peacock Summer was refreshingly unique. Lillian told Maggie very little about the past, a couple of slips here and there in a moment, but nothing solid. Maggie had to dig for her info, put the pieces together herself. It made her more of an active participant in the story and gave the reader plenty of opportunities to see Maggie’s qualities instead of simply focussing on her past mistakes. While uncovering the secrets of her family and in working towards a solution for saving Cloudesly, Maggie was able to at last find herself, or at least, she began to tread in the right direction for herself rather than directly into the arms of a saviour. She began, by the end of the story, to show signs of being the strong woman Lillian had hoped she could be. I very much enjoyed the positive open ending, it was fitting after such a grave and significant story.
“And for the briefest time, Maggie sees her life clearly: all the moments, large and small that have been, and all the ones yet to come, connected by some long, silvery thread, strong yet invisible, like a spider’s web. She feels this singular moment joining to all the rest and finds the thought strangely comforting.”
This is one novel where the past and the present were balanced and interwoven with perfection. There were many moments of poignant symmetry between Lillian and Maggie, giving a cohesion to the novel that ensured it was all one story, as opposed to a loosely linked ‘past and present’ tale. The Peacock Summer is a triumph, compelling historical fiction of the highest calibre. The significance of the title and the corresponding design of the double-sided cover is something all readers will appreciate once they’ve reached the end of this hauntingly beautiful novel.
June 25, 2018
New Release Book Review: Hive by A.J. Betts
About the Book:
All I can tell you is what I remember, in the words that I have.
Hayley tends to her bees and follows the rules in the only world she has ever known.
Until she witnesses the impossible: a drip from the ceiling.
A drip? It doesn’t make sense.
Yet she hears it, catches it. Tastes it.
Curiosity is a hook.
What starts as a drip leads to a lie, a death, a boy, a beast, and too many awful questions.
Hive is the first in a gripping two-book series by award-winning and international bestselling author A. J. Betts.
My Thoughts:
Refreshingly unique and highly absorbing, Hive by A.J. Betts is the first in a two part dystopian YA series about a community who live in a hexagonal world. YA and dystopian go hand in hand but they are not my usual reading material. I think I overdosed on it a few years back and it’s been a struggle to tolerate ever since. But I will tell you now, what a novel to break the drought with! Hive had me captivated from the beginning, I only wish it was one huge novel rather than a two part series, but I know YA doesn’t really work that way. I’ll certainly be looking out for the conclusion to this story because the ending of Hive has really left me hanging.
The world building in Hive is exceptionally good, so imaginative and so precise in its detailing. Basically, three hundred people live in this constructed hexagonal world. Day and night is created with phased artificial light and everything is indoors, even the outdoors. Zero population growth is carefully maintained through a meticulous process that ensures genetic integrity. Strict rules are in place and life mimics that of a religious sect. Five generations into this new world and no one remembers a time when life existed elsewhere. I expect book two will go into more detail about why Hive was created, although my initial impressions are because of global warming/environmental devastation. The whole set up kind of reminded me of Wall-E, that Disney movie about the little robot that was cleaning up a destroyed Earth while everyone else was living up in space. I loved how this hexagonal system was set up, it was so ingenious and I could actually envisage this as an authentic option for safe habitation.
However, as is the way with alternate worlds, no matter how ingenious the concept, as time goes on, oppression rears it head and someone always needs to lord it over everyone else. In Hive, the citizens are kept ignorant, only taught as children what ‘they need to know’, which is of course all propaganda geared to ensuring they tow the line at all times and develop a life sustaining fear of ‘sin’. Being diagnosed as ‘mad’ is an ever present threat as serious sanctions are put into place when this happens and no one ever returns to the general population cured. Hayley, the main character, suffers from the main symptom of madness, head pains, and she goes to great lengths to hide her symptoms. One day, she’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, a little haven she has discovered that eases her pains, and she witnesses something that sets her onto a path of questioning everything she has ever believed about her world. At first I felt that Hayley was incredibly naive, but this is in keeping with her sheltered existence. She’s actually quite intuitive and endlessly curious, two things that are not a bonus where she comes from. I liked how A.J. Betts picked apart Hayley’s careful existence, her increasing bewilderment and fear highlighting all that was wrong with her world and just how powerless she really was against the establishment. She was nothing more than a puppet lying in wait for them to tug on her strings. The abuse of power and state centred control within this world was harrowing to contemplate.
There are some serious issues underlying the story in Hive and it poses many questions for contemplation. I highly recommend this novel to readers of all ages. I was so impressed with this story, from the world building through to the characterisation, the engrossing plot and the unique premise. It’s a chilling little read, make no mistake, a cautionary tale of an alternate future. I’m really looking forward to Rogue, book two, and hope I don’t have to wait a whole year for it!
June 24, 2018
Book A Day: The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton
Day 2:
The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton
I was given a Dymocks gift voucher for my birthday in the year after this novel was released. It was sitting there on display in the Dymocks top 100 section, high up in the top ten, and the atmospheric cover caught my eye. I also liked that it was written by a Queensland author. And so began my love affair with the words of Kate Morton. She truly is in a class of her own.
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Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.
Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet’s suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace’s mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge; something history has forgotten but Grace never could.
Set as the war-shattered Edwardian summer surrenders to the decadent twenties, The Shifting Fog is a thrilling mystery and a compelling love story.
*Published as The House At Riverton in the UK
Have you read this one? Despite loving all of Kate Morton’s books, this one remains a favourite.
