image of person or book cover 6503087314706954674.jpg
Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone single work   novel   mystery  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A compulsive, note-perfect debut for fans of The Virgin Suicides and Picnic at Hanging Rock

''We lost all three girls that summer. Let them slip away like the words of some half-remembered song and when one came back, she wasn't the one we were trying to recall to begin with.'

'Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old during the long hot summer of 1992, growing up in a distant suburb in Australia surrounded by encroaching bushland. That summer, the hottest on record, was when the Van Apfel sisters – Hannah, the beautiful Cordelia and Ruth – mysteriously disappeared during the school's Showstopper concert, held at the outdoor amphitheatre by the river.  Did they run away? Were they taken?  While the search for the sisters unites the small community, the mystery of their disappearance has never been solved.

'Now, years later, Tikka has returned home, to try to make sense of that strange moment in time. The summer that shaped her.  The girls that she never forgot. 

'Brilliantly observed, spiky, sharp, funny and unexpectedly endearing, The Van Apfel Girls are Gone is part mystery, part coming-of-age story – with a dark shimmering unexplained absence at its heart. '  (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Dedication:

    For my parents.

    And for Andy, of course.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Michigan,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Thorndike Press ,
      2019 .
      image of person or book cover 7241878336650207020.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 389p.p.
      Description: Large print
      ISBN: 9781432867362, 1432867369
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Point Blank ,
      2019 .
      image of person or book cover 1347221148067610507.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 9781786076083, 178607608X
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Point Blank ,
      2020 .
      image of person or book cover 4156378143444352524.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Book Depository
      Extent: 304p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date 04 June 2020
      ISBN: 9781786077868

Other Formats

  • Dyslexic edition.
  • Large print.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Felicity McLean in Conversation with Chris Gordon Chris Gordon (interviewer), 2019 23469572 2019 single work podcast interview

'Readings events and programming manager Chris Gordon talks to author Felicity McLean about her quintessentially Australian coming-of-age story, The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone.'  (Production summary)

Debut Novel Sings Own Song Thuy On , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27 April 2019; (p. 22)

— Review of The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone Felicity McLean , 2019 single work novel

'“We lost all three girls that summer. Let them slip away like the words of some half-­remembered song …” It’s impossible to ignore Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Virgin Suicides when reading Felicity McLean’s debut novel, The Van Apfel Girls are Gone. The title itself is a nod to the trope of missing young women that so haunted the works of Joan Lindsay and Jeffrey Eugenides. Though cognisant of these influences, McLean’s book sings its own song.'  (Introduction)

The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean Dean Biron , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June - July no. 412 2019; (p. 39)

'From the ill-fated explorations of Leichhardt and Burke and Wills through to the Beaumont children, Azaria Chamberlain, and the backpacker murders in New South Wales, the history of Australia is peppered with tales and images of people going missing. And, as the First Peoples might well have been able to warn us, few of those stories turn out well.'  (Introduction)

Felicity McLean : The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone Catie McLeod , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 27 April - 3 May 2019;

— Review of The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone Felicity McLean , 2019 single work novel

'Felicity McLean’s debut novel, The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone, has been described as Picnic at Hanging Rock for a new generation. In Joan Lindsay’s classic, the girls go missing from Appleyard College, while the titular surname in McLean’s book recalls the same fruit. Cordie, Hannah and Ruth Van Apfel are three sisters who seem to evaporate into the endless, suffocating summer of 1992.' (Introduction)

Felicity McLean : The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone Catie McLeod , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 27 April - 3 May 2019;

— Review of The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone Felicity McLean , 2019 single work novel

'Felicity McLean’s debut novel, The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone, has been described as Picnic at Hanging Rock for a new generation. In Joan Lindsay’s classic, the girls go missing from Appleyard College, while the titular surname in McLean’s book recalls the same fruit. Cordie, Hannah and Ruth Van Apfel are three sisters who seem to evaporate into the endless, suffocating summer of 1992.' (Introduction)

Debut Novel Sings Own Song Thuy On , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27 April 2019; (p. 22)

— Review of The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone Felicity McLean , 2019 single work novel

'“We lost all three girls that summer. Let them slip away like the words of some half-­remembered song …” It’s impossible to ignore Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Virgin Suicides when reading Felicity McLean’s debut novel, The Van Apfel Girls are Gone. The title itself is a nod to the trope of missing young women that so haunted the works of Joan Lindsay and Jeffrey Eugenides. Though cognisant of these influences, McLean’s book sings its own song.'  (Introduction)

The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean Dean Biron , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June - July no. 412 2019; (p. 39)

'From the ill-fated explorations of Leichhardt and Burke and Wills through to the Beaumont children, Azaria Chamberlain, and the backpacker murders in New South Wales, the history of Australia is peppered with tales and images of people going missing. And, as the First Peoples might well have been able to warn us, few of those stories turn out well.'  (Introduction)

y separately published work icon Felicity McLean in Conversation with Chris Gordon Chris Gordon (interviewer), 2019 23469572 2019 single work podcast interview

'Readings events and programming manager Chris Gordon talks to author Felicity McLean about her quintessentially Australian coming-of-age story, The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone.'  (Production summary)

Last amended 21 Aug 2024 20:48:21
X