Journey to the Stone Country
Crows Nest
:
Allen and Unwin
,
2002
Z982836
2002
single work
novel
(taught in 3 units)
'Betrayed by her husband, Annabelle Beck retreats from Melbourne to her old family home in tropical North Queensland where she meets Bo Rennie, one of the Jangga tribe. Intrigued by Bo's claim that he holds the key to her future, Annabelle sets out with him on a path of recovery that leads back to her childhood and into the Jangga's ancient heartland, where their grandparents' lives begin to yield secrets that will challenge the possibility of their happiness together.' - Publisher's blurb.
It's Raining in Mango : Pictures from the Family Album
New York (City)
:
G. P. Putnam's Sons
,
1987
Z355929
1987
selected work
short story
(taught in 2 units)
Wresting his family from the easy living of nineteenth-century Sydney, Cornelius Laffey takes them to northern Queensland where thousands of hopefuls are digging for gold in the mud. They confront the horror of Aboriginal dispossession, and Cornelius is sacked for reporting the slaughter. This is an unforgettable tale of the other side of Australia's heritage.
Source: Penguin Random House Australia.
(https://penguin.com.au/books/its-raining-in-mango-popular-penguins-9780143204749)
Jam Tree Gully : Poems
New York (City)
:
W. W. Norton
,
2012
Z1823469
2012
selected work
poetry
(taught in 1 units)
'In this daring new collection, Australia's preeminent environmental poet confronts the legacy of Thoreau's Walden. With Walden as his inspiration, John Kinsella moved with his family back to rural Australia, where he wrote the poems in this original collection exploring the nature of our responsibility and connection to the land.' (Publisher's blurb)
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Sydney
:
Pan Macmillan Australia
,
1997
Z366585
1997
single work
novel
(taught in 4 units)
A sweeping novel of world war, migration, and the search for new beginnings in a new land, The Sound of One Hand Clapping was both critically acclaimed and a best-seller in Australia. It is a virtuoso performance from an Australian who is emerging as one of our most talented new storytellers. It was 1954, in a construction camp for a hydroelectric dam in the remote Tasmanian highlands, where Bojan Buloh had brought his family to start a new life away from Slovenia, the privations of war, and refugee settlements. One night, Bojan's wife walked off into a blizzard, never to return -- leaving Bojan to drink too much to quiet his ghosts, and to care for his three-year-old daughter Sonja alone. Thirty-five years later, Sonja returns to Tasmania and a father haunted by memories of the European war and other, more recent horrors. As the shadows of the past begin to intrude ever more forcefully into the present, Sonja's empty life and her father's living death are to change forever. The Sound of One Hand Clapping is about the barbarism of an old world left behind, about the harshness of a new country, and the destiny of those in a land beyond hope who seek to redeem themselves through love.
(Vintage, 2016)
This unit considers a range of Australian poetry, fiction and drama with a strong sense of place, and extends the city-bush divide that has been so prevalent in Australian culture. It is concerned with the ways a sense of place is manifested in literary works. It also examines the collective notion of 'Australian' literature for the differences made by settings in diverse parts of Australia and the sensibilities of authors from different regions. The unit includes a number of Western Australian works, and writings by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors.
