Theresa Smith's Blog, page 142

Saturday Spotlight with Sally Hepworth — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog

Over at Australian Women Writers Challenge blog today, chatting to Sally Hepworth about her latest release, The Family Next Door.

 

Welcome to Saturday Spotlight. Our guest today is Sally Hepworth, talking about her latest release, The Family Next Door. 1. There are some very specific issues brought into the light in The Family Next Door. What drew you to them? With each of my books I have always focused on an area of women’s health.…

via Saturday Spotlight with Sally Hepworth — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog

Bingo! Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig

It’s bingo Saturday once again – that rolled around fast! The square I’ve filled for this entry is:

 

A Book with Themes of Culture

 

As soon as I read Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig, I knew this was going to be my next bingo title. This novel follows one prominent Burmese family struggling to overcome war and political repression while trying to build a meaningful life. Miss Burma is a novel that will stay with me (you can read my review here).

A truly mesmerising and terribly beautiful account of a history I have until now not been aware of.

 

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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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Behind the Pen with Anthea Hodgson

I am delighted to welcome Anthea Hodgson to Behind the Pen today, here to talk about her latest release, The Cowgirl.

 

 

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Your latest release, The Cowgirl, features a buried house. I had never heard of such a thing before now! Where did the inspiration for this come from?

It grew quite organically, from two different directions. I liked the way Teddy observed the wind rushing past as other parts of the world visiting her, and rushing on again, leaving her stuck – in the mud. The sky became my symbol for freedom and adventure, and so the earth came to represent work, duty – staying still. The buried house was all of this – it’s buried on the farm just as Deirdre has been, just as Teddy has allowed herself to become. It’s also a great metaphor for (ok, so slightly obvious!) digging up the past, and for digging up secrets. The buried house felt like a quest, and like a good way to represent the memories and secrets that lie hidden for Deirdre. And, of course, it may or may not be a treasure hunt!

 

 

The Cowgirl is loosely linked in terms of setting and a common character to The Drifter. Was it always your intention to write “a series” or is this merely happenstance?

There was always going to be a second Windstorm book as part of my contract, although I was given enormous scope as to what that might be. I knew I wanted to revisit Windstorm because I love the landscape and the characters so much (I know a good number of them!) and I was keen to spend time with Deirdre, who was totally grumpy and therefore appealing to me. I wanted to share her story. What happened to her to make her so grim? I tend to think of the two novels as bookends – where I brought the Drifter home, I wanted to set the Cowgirl free.

 

 

What is your favourite scene from The Cowgirl?

The fire scene, absolutely! I don’t even want to describe it, because although it’s near the end, I wrote it early in my draft of the manuscript – and wrote the rest of the novel heading towards that huge, cathartic scene. How I love it! To me, it is the meeting point, by the fire, of all the stories, histories, lost dreams, dances, and folklore in the novel, and in our lives. It feels so joyful to me, triumphant, magical, and a little sad as well. I feel that scene so deeply I can’t read it aloud.

 

 

How far has your writing career evolved from when you first began to write to what it is today? Is this in line with your initial expectations?

I must say, in that I have been published at all, it has far outstripped my expectations! My career began a few years ago when I wrote The Drifter in five weeks – it was a fast and furious beginning, which stalled for two years while I searched for an agent or publisher without any success at all. Then, in another burst of speed (dating) I did a 5 minute pitch to Ali Watts from Penguin Books – and was speedily contracted to two books. Now I am in the stressful yet completely satisfying process of actually writing and editing. It is a total privilege, and I intend to savour every moment until Penguin come to their senses and give me the flick!

 

 

Where do you normally write? Is it in the same place every day or are you an all over the place writer?

Anywhere and anytime. I take my laptop almost everywhere just in case I get a moment and I can get back to writing. I have a few favourite local cafes, I write on sporting sidelines, in libraries, at the kitchen table, the couch, in bed – I just love to write anywhere. When I was young I used to make up serialised stories in my mind, pausing them and picking them up again the next time I was bored – often on long car trips. I wasn’t writing anything down, but I was going through stories, making them up, including dialogue, scene by scene. I think the process of seeing my characters before me is very natural to me now.

 

 

What attributes do you think you need to remain sane as a writer? Are there any particular things you routinely do for yourself to maintain your own headspace?

I think you need patience, and, although it’s hard to achieve, a solid self-esteem. That you’re ok, that your voice is good, and that people will care. There is a lot of waiting in a writing career. Waiting to find a publisher or an agent, or both, waiting for them to get back to you on a manuscript, waiting for edits, waiting for release, waiting for reviews… it’s easy to allow the waiting to make you second guess yourself, so you need to have faith, that you can produce the manuscript, and that it is worth reading. I went through two years of silent rejections from publishers and agents before I backed myself, flew to Melbourne, pitched to Penguin and scored a deal. Maybe I’ll call it faith and patience (which sounds like names of some sweet girls growing up on a prairie).

 

 

Is there any one particular season on the year that you find more creatively inspirational than the others?

Any season but Summer (shudder). Summer has been kicking sand in my pasty face for way too long and I refuse to allow it any creative input whatsoever. I do however find ALL of the other seasons particularly engaging. So there, Summer. Suck it.

 

 

Can you share with us a vivid childhood memory?

I have many happy memories of rounding up sheep with Dad, in the blasting heat of summer, with the windows of the ute right down to flush the hot air into the cab, and freezing cold days with the windows up, and the windscreen smeared with recent rain, dust and bug guts, listening to the hiss of the ABC on the rather terrible ute radio. And I remember my quiet childhood pride when he often left me there, at the end of the race a few kilometres from home at maybe 6 or 7 years old. You bring them home Antha Pantha, he’d say, and he’d drive away through the paddocks to set the gates, to pick up the wool packs from town or complete a thousand other tasks. And there I’d be, alone on a little farm road behind 300 sheep, pattering along ahead of me, pausing to nibble the grass in winter, or to hopefully inspect clover burr in summer. The cold wind making my nose ache, or the hot sun blasting down on my hat and my arms. The ground hard and dusty, or covered in fresh cape weed and sheep manure. But the real memory was this – that I was trusted, and the warmth of it stays with me still.

 

 

After growing up in the WA wheat-belt, are you a cowgirl at heart like Teddy or a city girl through and through?

I’m disappointed you’d ask! Country girl at heart! Even though I don’t get to spend as much time in the country as I’d like, I feel the freedom and the beauty of the country as soon as I drive over the Darling Range on the way home again. I love the landscape, the farming communities, the small towns, the scent of the shearing shed, the bright glow of the new crop in morning sunlight, the thin high sound of lambs calling for their mothers on the next hill, the boots outside kitchen doors, and the strong hot cups of tea at kitchen tables within. I love it all. (But I also love living within a kilometre of about a bazillion cafes, and the convenience of dashing to the corner for a carton of milk..!)

 

 

Now, onto the really important question: if you could only own one pair of shoes for the rest of your life, what type are they and what colour?

Ok – Important! I have to say I already pretty much live in one pair of shoes – my magnificent and highly alluring Birkenstocks – black, because they go with everything. Reasons I love them? Comfort – at least three reasons right there. They’re also kind of generic and anonymous, and I feel as if my feet have anything to say to the wider world I would like it to be, I’m clean, and my toenails have recently been trimmed. Everything else I have to communicate to the world I prefer to do with my brain and my sunny disposition.

The Cowgirl 

‘When you look up at that sky, tell me you don’t know the world is bigger than this farm.’

[image error]Teddy Broderick is committed to her busy life in the country – seeding, harvest, shearing, and the daily milking of her grandmother’s cow – but she dreams of another life, in the world beyond the farm gate.

But just as she thinks she knows everything about her family, her grandmother Deirdre announces there is a house buried on the property, and archaeologist Will Hastings is coming to dig it up.

What is hidden in Deirdre’s childhood home that she needs to see again before she dies? What is preventing Teddy from living the life she truly wants, and will she ever find her freedom?

As Teddy and Will work to expose past secrets to the light,the stories they tell bring them together, and unearth a whole world of buried treasures.

The Cowgirl is published by Penguin Random House Australia.

 

New Release Book Review: The Cowgirl by Anthea Hodgson

The Cowgirl…
About the Book:

Teddy Broderick has lived on her farm almost all her life, committed to the rhythms of the country – seeding, harvest, shearing and the twice daily milking of the cow her grandmother has looked after for years, but she dreams of another life, in the wide world away from the confines of her property.

She thinks she knows her home and its community inside out, until her grandmother Deirdre announces there is a house buried on the property, and Will Hastings, an archaeologist, is coming to dig it up again.

As they work together to expose Deirdre’s past to the light, the stories they tell bring them together and pull Teddy further away from her home.

But what is hidden in Deirdre’s childhood house that she needs to see again before she dies – and why? What is it that stops Teddy from living the life she truly wants? And will she ever find her freedom?

 

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My Thoughts:

The Cowgirl by Anthea Hodgson is a very fine novel indeed. A familiar setting with familar characters is accompanied by some new additions as we focus on the family of Deirdre Broderick, that grumpy neighbour that was Ida’s best friend in The Drifter.

 

I love Deirdre. I’ll just get that out here and now. Yes, she’s grumpy and bossy, but you just know she has a loyal heart of gold. For me, it was Deirdre’s story that held me captive with The Cowgirl. I did like Teddy, for sure, and found myself quietly hoping that she might be able to overcome all that was holding her back, but it was Deirdre that really had me by the heartstrings. Her story was devastating, but she was so strong and so brave; what an amazing woman. Just when I thought she had faced all she could, Anthea would throw her another curveball. A true survivor, Deirdre might just be one of my favourite characters in a novel from here on in; it’ll take a lot for anyone to measure up to her.

 

The sense of community is strong within The Cowgirl. There’s lots of gatherings for tea and cake, lots of supporting each other, and lots of good old country vibes that all together make for a warm and hearty read. I found the whole ‘digging up a house’ rather fascinating, the idea of it all buried lying in wait, as well as discovering what had stood the test of time, and most importantly, what was hidden in the end. This was a unique plot for the story to orbit around, I certainly hadn’t heard of a buried house before!

 

The Cowgirl is a treat for fans of rural fiction and for those who loved The Drifter, rest assured, this novel stands in its stead very well.

 

Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of The Cowgirl for review.

About the Author:

[image error]Anthea Hodgson is a country girl from the WA wheatbelt. She worked as a radio producer in WA, NSW and Queensland before returning to WA, where she lives with her husband and two children.

New Release Book Review: The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth

The Family Next Door…
About the Book:

Do you ever really know your neighbours?

The safest suburbs often hold the deepest secrets. Such is the case for Essie, a mother of two. In a moment of maternal despair she once made a terrible mistake, one she will always regret. Essie has since recovered, but she fears what may still lurk inside her.

Her neighbours in Pleasant Court have their own issues. Driven and organised, Ange appears to have everything under control, except perhaps her husband. Practical, intellectual Fran can’t stop running. For exercise, or something else?

One day in February, during an unprecedented Melbourne heatwave, someone new arrives. Isabelle is single and childless, when everyone else is married with kids. She is renting, when everyone else owns. Her job is mysteriously vague. Strangest of all, Isabelle is very curious about her neighbours. Too curious, some might say.

It soon becomes clear that Isabelle’s choice of neighbourhood was no accident. And her presence might bring even more secrets to light…

 

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My Thoughts:

The Family Next Door is my first Sally Hepworth novel and I’m pleased to say that I now know why she’s one of Australia’s most popular authors. On the domestic drama front, Sally is in a class of her own. This novel clips along at a rapid pace, intriguing enough to suck you in but not too mysterious that you tire of the inferences. The delivery was punchy, the chapters hooking you in to ‘just read one more’, and the characters as authentic as, well, as your own neighbours.

 

There are some heavy themes presented in The Family Next Door offering much food for thought on postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, two conditions that are still evolving in terms of public discussion and impressions. In addition to this, family structures are examined and marriage is put under the microscope. All in all, it makes for an insightful read and I was utterly engrossed in The Family Next Door from start to finish.

 

I had a lot of sympathy for all of the characters, with the exception of Lucas, who really was a tosser in my opinion. I did favour Ange, perhaps because I felt some affinity to her and her plight, but more so because I loved her realism and her bravery. I have a lot of respect for women who protect their self-worth, even when it means taking the harder road. As to Barbara, her story was truly heartbreaking and weighed on me greatly.

 

In terms of setting, Sally did very well at re-creating suburbia. There’s an interesting dynamic that exists between neighbours. You’re a step above acquaintances but not exactly friends. I loved how Sally tapped into this as it offered a more realistic slant than if the characters had all been the very best of friends just because they lived on the same street as each other. Granted, the relationships between the women strengthened as time progressed, but essentially, that neighbourhood dynamic was retained throughout.

 

This novel threw me a couple of good surprises and impressed me with the depth of the storyline. It’s a novel that will resonate with many mothers. I’m always so pleased to read a novel that sympathetically examines motherhood. It doesn’t come naturally to all of us and isn’t an instant bed of roses, and sometimes, no matter how much we love our children, they drive us crazy and we yearn for a little bit of shush. There’s nothing wrong with this and I love that Sally wove these notions into her narrative so tightly. There’s a lot of information out there telling mothers how they should feel, what they should be doing or not doing with their children and so on. It’s so refreshing to read a novel that celebrates the notion of mothers as individuals with individual children parenting with individual strategies. Intelligent writing always entices me and I look forward to reading Sally’s backlist and enjoying her new novels far into the future.

Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Family Next Door for review.

About the Author:

[image error]Sally Hepworth has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the UK and Canada, where she worked in event management and human resources. She is the author of Love Like the French, The Secrets of Midwives, The Things We Keep and The Mother’s Promise.

Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and children.

 

New Release Book Review: The Passengers by Eleanor Limprecht

The Passengers…
About the Book:

Sarah and Hannah are on a cruise from San Diego, California to Sydney, Australia. Sarah, Hannah’s grandmother, is returning to the country of her birth, a place she hasn’t seen since boarding the USS Mariposa in 1945. Then she, along with countless other war brides, sailed across the Pacific to join the American servicemen they’d married during World War II.

Now Hannah is the same age Sarah was when she made her first journey, and in hearing Sarah tell the story of her life, realises the immensity of what her grandmother gave up.

The Passengers is a luminous novel about love: the journeys we undertake, the sacrifices we make and the heartache we suffer for love It is about how we most long for what we have left behind. And it is about the past – how close it can still feel – even after long passages of time.

 

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My Thoughts:

I so enjoyed this novel, The Passengers by Eleanor Limprecht. As you all know, historical fiction is my favourite, with war stories topping my preference within the genre, particularly ones that explore the lives of those living alongside war (as opposed to fighting in it), either at the home front, or in an invaded country. I guess this qualifies loosely as both: Australia being the home front that was invaded by American Servicemen to aid in the protection of our shores. This story orbits around the phenomenon of war brides, focusing on one in particular, Sarah, a nineteen year old country girl swept off her feet in a whirlwind romance with an urge to break free from home. I really liked Sarah, but I’ll return to her shortly. First, I just want to expand on the whole notion of war brides because the statistics cited within the novel are rather exceptional.

“The Army has created an organisation to handle every detail of transport of dependents of Americans from overseas – estimated to total 50,000 wives and 20,000 children…

All the husbands have to do will be to meet the train and take delivery of his wife after signing for her.”

I’m thinking that these figures included England, Australia, and any other European nations populated by American Servicemen during WWII. In Australia alone, that population drop would have been detrimental on the back of Australian Serviceman deaths, but say it does include England, and parts of Europe, this loss of women in the childbearing age group would have still been significant for all of the nations affected. Except for America who got a population boost. Fascinating to contemplate. I couldn’t resist including that little bit on the end; how convenient, just sign on the dotted line and off you go. Just like collecting a parcel.

 

Back to Sarah. She was quite a complex character. In some ways, very typical of her era:

“Not long after I got the job at the Quartermaster Corps I put a wedding dress on layby at Grace Bros. Wedding dresses were becoming scarce, and I didn’t want to miss out.”

This gave me a laugh. No boyfriend, much less a fiancé, but the expectation of being a bride was so commonplace that you just bought a dress regardless. Yet, Sarah was also a modern young woman who wanted more out of life. She didn’t know how to go about it, marrying for excitement and escape, rather than any true depth within a relationship. She was brave though, and took a bold step that many would have avoided, and I loved the way her path smoothed out, life offering her that something more she’d long been seeking.

 

This novel is split between eras, but not in the traditional way. Sarah is on a cruise as an eighty-something, returning to Australia after more than sixty years to reunite with the family she has left. Accompanying her is her granddaughter, Hannah. All throughout the journey, Sarah tells Hannah her life story, and this is where the past and present collide. I liked the way this all came together, the sharing of memories within a storytelling context. It bridged the years well and flowed beautifully, unfolding at a well evened pace.

 

I have to say though, I really didn’t connect to Hannah. It’s difficult to appreciate a character with a disorder or addiction; the very nature of their suffering ensures a degree of selfishness. Her self-hatred really began to wear me down, and I got to the end of the novel feeling no different about her. To me, her only purpose was to provide a set of ears for Sarah’s life story. Everything else seemed a distraction. And I didn’t really feel the authenticity of her disorder. The reasons for it seemed misappropriated and I felt her issues ran deeper than what was alluded to.

 

Overall, The Passengers is an exceptionally good read. There were times when Eleanor Limprecht had me spellbound by her beautiful prose. I loved her descriptions of America through Sarah’s fresh Australian gaze, particularly all the cultural differences. The difficulties associated with migrating alone to a new country, married to a man you hardly knew, with the expectation of assimilation into a never before met family, were well explored. Likewise, the homesickness, the loneliness, the sheer difference of everything; I was able to appreciate Sarah’s predicament with ease. I’m going to leave you with this passage, my favourite from the novel. It showcases the strong imagery Eleanor infuses into her narrative, and gives a good sense of Sarah, when she was quite possibly at her lowest.

“I was leaving behind everything I’d imagined for us, only it didn’t exist; it had never existed outside my head. It was in the trenches of New Guinea, maybe, the jungle prison, the rotting wounds of men. In my mother’s ear pressed to the radio, my father’s gaze as his empty glass was refilled with beer. Roy in the dark park, kneeling before me in the damp grass. Useless hope, chances we’d never have. Instead it was the flies on the filmy-eyed horses, the knowledge that life would never seem so full of possibility again.”

 

Thanks is extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Passengers for review.

About the Author:

Eleanor was born and raised in the US, Germany and Pakistan but now lives in Sydney, Australia. Eleanor’s previous novels, What Was Left and Long Bay were both published by Sleepers Publishing to critical acclaim.

 

Behind the Pen with Lynne North

Today I’m giving a warm Behind the Pen welcome to Lynne North, UK author of children’s fiction.

 

 

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How many novels have you written and published?

I am lucky enough to have had five books published to date, all now with my current publisher, Crimson Cloak Publishing.

These books are:

Caution: Witch in Progress: a children’s humorous fantasy.

Zac’s Destiny: A children’s sword and sorcery fantasy.

Emily and the Enchanted Wood: A short children’s fantasy.

Be Careful What You Wish For: A completely different children’s humorous fantasy.

The Chalice of Jupiter: A Role-play adventure game book set in an ancient Roman city.

 

Do you have any particular qualifications that relate to the subject matter covered in your novels?

I have been a prolific reader all my life, and for many years have spent most of my free time writing. As well as being educated up to degree level, I have completed courses and received diplomas from ‘The Writing School Ltd’ and ‘The Academy of Children’s Writers’. My aim in life has always been to write, and I have had a sideline of freelance writing for more years than I like to admit to having lived. The actual subject matter of my books is fantasy, therefore comes entirely from my inventive mind!

 

How far has your writing career evolved from when you first began to write to what it is today? Is this in line with your initial expectations?

I first began writing with any seriousness in my late teens and early twenties. At the time, most of the work I had published was in the form of magazine articles. Of course my calling was always to have a book published. All my books have gone through many stages and rewrites to become the books that are out there today. There is much to learn to be a writer. Writing a book is not enough. To become a published writer involves so much more such as book presentation, editing and formatting. The publisher has to like the look of your book enough to actually read it! Crimson Cloak Publishing are my third publishers, and a company I hope to always write for now. I have two more books awaiting publication.

In the early days I didn’t expect very much of my attempts to be published because it is such a hard field to get into. I was delighted when I began to have many articles published, but having my first book published was beyond my wildest dreams. All the hard work and determination finally paid off!

 

How would you best describe this novel to a new reader?

In this interview I am discussing ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’.

 

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As I mentioned above, this is a children’s humorous fantasy about an unlucky and rather bored leprechaun named Finn. He lives a quiet life with his family and friends in the sleepy village of Duntappin but Finn yearns for something exciting to happen. Never having been blessed by the Good Luck Fairy, however, he soon gets far more than he bargained for. When he least expects his adventure to begin, Finn finds himself a long way from home in dire circumstances. Home starts to seem very appealing all of a sudden. Has he any hope of getting back? This is no fairy tale… This funny and fast moving story filled by weird and wonderful characters will turn all your expectations on their head, but that’s a good thing, because it makes them all the more amusing.

 

Do you read your book reviews? Do you appreciate reader feedback and take it on board, even if it is negative? How do you deal with negative feedback after spending so much time writing your book?

Yes, I read every book review with care. I’m lucky enough to mainly get good reviews, but I take any suggestions or negative comments very seriously. A writer must always be ready to learn and to improve. One way is by responding to constructive criticism and deciding what could have been written better. The next book then takes these comments into account.

 

How much planning do you do? Do you plan/plot the entire story from beginning to end, or let it evolve naturally as the writing progresses? In terms of characters, are they already a firm picture in your mind before you start writing or do they develop a personality of their own as the story progresses?

My planning consists of getting ideas for a new book. This will usually just come to me sparked by something I see, hear, or have an interest in. The inspiration might even be something I mentioned in a previous book that I realise I could expand on. I jot notes and ideas down for a while, then decide on a tentative beginning, middle and end. The rest is left to the Fates! As I write, ideas change and evolve, usually due to the developing characters. The characters in fact take over. I begin to learn what they would or wouldn’t do and how they would react in each situation. Once the characters begin to write the book, I know I am well on my way.

 

What authors and types of books do you love the most?

I love fantasy books, Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Terry Brooks, Tad Williams and more. Anything that claims to be ‘comparable to Tolkien at his best’ catches my eye. I’m also still trying to find a humorous fantasy writer as good as my hero, Mr Pratchett, but I don’t think I will ever find his equal.

I also enjoy reading children’s books by authors such as Joseph Delaney, Angie Sage, F.E Higgens and others in these types of fantasy genre.

 

Are you more of a print, e-book, or audio book fan?

Print, all the way. There is nothing quite like holding a new book, especially my own! The sight, smell and feel of a new book are wonderful. E-books are fine, but they will never compare to real books in my eyes.

 

If you could write a letter to your teenage self, what would be your main piece of advice?

I would point out that success will not come easy. As with most things in life, it has to be worked for. To write a good book is not enough. A lot of the work only begins then. I would ask myself if I am in it for the long haul. Am I ready to face possible years of rejection and disappointment to finally reach my goal? If the answer is still yes, then I would advise myself to go for it, never give up, and you WILL get there in the end.

 

Where do you draw your inspiration from? How do you fill up that creativity well?

Inspiration can come from so many diverse places. Consequently, I always carry a notebook around with me. The ideas for my next book might come from a happening, a sight, overhearing a smattering of conversation, almost anything unexpected. All it takes is that spark to make my mind begin to go off on a new track. I may or may not then do some study on the subject, but in general I find this less necessary to do with fantasy than any other genre. To me, fantasy is personal and imaginative. This is my world and my ideas, so whatever happens is up to me. I often have two books in progress at the same time. In this way, if I get a minor block on one of them, I work on the other for a while. In that transition time, the next stage of the other book comes clearer to me. It might not work for everyone, but I find it a useful exercise. Inspiration is all around us. We just have to train ourselves to see it.

 

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New Release Book Review: The Lucky Galah by Tracy Sorensen

The Lucky Galah…
About the Book:

It’s 1969 and a remote coastal town in Western Australia is poised to play a pivotal part in the moon landing. Perched on the red dunes of its outskirts looms the great Dish: a relay for messages between Apollo 11 and Houston, Texas. Crouched around a single grainy set, radar technician Evan Johnson and his colleagues stare at the screen, transfixed, as Armstrong takes that first small step.

I was in my cage of course, unheard, underestimated, biscuit crumbs on my beak. But fate is a curious thing. For just as Evan Johnson’s story is about to end (and perhaps with a giant leap), my story prepares to take flight…

The Lucky Galah is a novel about fate. About Australia. About what it means to be human. It just happens to be narrated by a galah called Lucky.

 

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My Thoughts:

It’s no great secret that I am a fan of overtly Australian novels, especially the ones set in small communities. I love the unique Aussie references and familiar slang, and what many often peg as cliché, I tend to adore. The Lucky Galah was a treat from beginning to end for me. A truly delightful slice of Aussie life from days gone by. Tracy Sorensen has done a splendid job of creating a trip down memory lane for all of the 60s, 70s and 80s children within us. There were so many moments of, “I remember those” and “I used to do that” and “when did they disappear?” – the nostalgia was ripe for the picking! And I loved that about this novel. It’s very character and lifestyle driven, and while it might have been low on action, it was rich in quaint detail and emotional depth.

 

The Lucky Galah is entirely unique. It’s narrated by a galah, so, that’s a given. Lucky has not always been all that lucky, and over the course of the novel, she tells the story of how she went from an unlucky start to her current lucky life. It’s funny, nostalgic, a little bit sad and always engaging, and right the way through, you are always conscious that it is a galah telling this story, not a person. Very clever on the part of Tracy Sorensen, to bequest upon a bird such a realistic personality. Lucky is a bit of a possessive galah with a jealous streak and a leaning towards vanity. She’s frustrated by her inability to vocalise all of her internal dialogue and longs to be ‘one of the girls’. She has a few compulsion issues, acts before she thinks, but she loves fiercely and is as smart as she is sassy. And she knows everything about everyone. Which is why her story is such an interesting one to behold.

 

The Lucky Galah is filled to the brim with social discourse, gossip, scandal, and a ground breaking world event, all playing out against a background of a society on the cusp of change. And of course, one pink and grey bird who has a yearning to tell a story at the helm of it all. Many threads are unravelled throughout the telling, but rest assured, they all tie neatly back together by the end. I think this is a wonderful novel, truly delightful and incredibly insightful. Human nature under a microscope with a running commentary from a galah – you can’t get more authentically Australian than that.

 

Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Lucky Galah for review.

About the Author:

[image error]Tracy Sorensen is a writer, filmmaker and academic. She was born in Brisbane, grew up in Carnarvon on the north coast of Western Australia and lived in and around Newtown, Sydney, for about 15 years. She now lives in Bathurst with her partner Steve and a black Labrador (Bertie). The Lucky Galah is her first novel.

 

New Release Book Review: The Everlasting Sunday by Robert Lukins

The Everlasting Sunday…
About the Book:

During the freezing English winter of 1962, seventeen-year-old Radford is sent to Goodwin Manor, a great and isolated house in country Shropshire for boys who have been ‘found by trouble’. Drawn immediately to the charismatic West, Radford soon discovers that each one of them has something to hide. Life at the Manor offers a refuge of sorts, but the onset of a deathly winter and unexpected new arrivals threaten the fragile dynamics. At once beautiful and haunting, The Everlasting Sunday is a haunting debut novel about growing up, growing wild, and what it takes to survive.

 

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My Thoughts:

Highly atmospheric, yet deeply unsettling, The Everlasting Sunday is a meticulous account of toxic masculinity within a setting of inverted institutionalisation. During a winter freeze, a teenager arrives at a reform home for boys located deep in the English countryside. We don’t know what he’s done to arrive at this fate, and indeed, as we quickly learn, it is the policy of this home that the boys do not have to disclose their reasons for being there unless they personally choose to. There are no locks on the doors inside of this home and the boys roam freely, even down to the local village, challenging the traditional notions of a reform home as a place of retribution.

 

The home is run by Teddy, a man who sees his only purpose as keeping the boys safe and alive, and who takes a quite liberal view on what the boys should or shouldn’t be doing with their time while living at the Manor. Yet I found his philosophy somewhat contradictory in terms of its grounding in reality. The boys within this home have all been sent there, put away in a sense, to a far corner of England where they essentially can become someone else’s problem. They have all done something to earn this fate, and they are all, by inclination, volatile to a certain degree. Teddy aims to keep them safe from a worse fate, yet he is powerless to protect them from each other. Institutionalisation without structure sees the Manor flex under the stress of anarchy, on more than one occasion. While I could appreciate where Teddy was coming from, I honestly felt his method was flawed and doomed to failure. In trying to eliminate toxic masculinity, he instead inadvertently fostered it. There can be no doubt though, of the positive effect that Teddy tried to have on each of the boys. He offered them truth and bore them no judgement. For those who were willing, what he offered was a safe passage through adolescence. A chance at a fresh start.

“‘Each generation feels it stands on the precipice of eternal decline,’ Teddy said. ‘And every generation has thought that it alone is correct in this judgement. We believe the best is behind us, that there’s a time that would suit us better and it’s always just gone, just out of reach.’”

 

This novel veers from quiet contemplation with moments of wonderful introspection and observation into a brutality that is confronting and at times disturbing. I balanced between being repelled by some of the actions by the boys, yet compelled to keep reading, gripped by a narrative strongly underpinned with a sense of doom. As a unique touch, Robert Lukins has fashioned Winter into a character, a presence unlike any other I have encountered within a novel before. Robert is quite a master with words, lyrically weaving them all together with visual clarity, blunt force, and impeccable timing.

“Trees bore witness to so much. The passing of kings and centuries of wordless battles. They saw whole lives, their beginnings and vicious ends. And yet they did nothing. Said nothing.”

 

While there were parts of this novel that I found difficult to read, I do like how the narrative challenged me. There is a lot to contemplate within this novel, and a lot to appreciate. The Everlasting Sunday is a fine debut and I feel certain this is only the beginning of great literary endeavours for Robert Lukins.

 

Thanks is extended to UQP for providing me with a copy of The Everlasting Sunday for Review.

About the Author:

[image error]Robert Lukins lives in Melbourne and has worked as an arts researcher and journalist. His writing has been published widely, including in The Big Issue, Rolling Stone, Crikey, Broadsheet and Overland.

Robert was my guest on Behind the Pen recently. You can read the interview here.

Sunday Spotlight with Vanessa Carnevale — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog

Chatting with one of my favourites, Vanessa Carnevale, over at the Australian Women Writers Challenge blog today.

Today we warmly welcome Vanessa Carnevale to Sunday Spotlight to talk about her latest novel, The Memories That Make Us. When did you start writing and what was the catalyst? For a long time before writing my first novel I felt like I had a book in me but didn’t quite know what…

via Sunday Spotlight with Vanessa Carnevale — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog