Cirrus@Austlit

'The remarkable debut novel from acclaimed prize-winning short fiction writer Michelle Wright, author of Fine.

'May, 1940: After a bitter tragedy, young Australian woman Lucie and her French mother Yvonne are forced to leave home and seek help from the only family they have left - Lucie's Uncle Gerard.

'As the Second World War engulfs Europe, the two women find themselves trapped in German-occupied Paris, sharing a cramped apartment with the authoritarian Gerard and his extremist views.

'Drawing upon her artistic talents, Lucie risks her own safety to engage in small acts of defiance against the occupying forces and the collaborationist French regime, where the authorities reward French citizens for denouncing so-called 'traitors' in their community.

'Faced with the escalating brutality of anti-Jewish measures, and the indifference of so many of her fellow Parisians, Lucie must decide how far she will go to defend the rights of others.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'The dazzlingly accomplished stories in this collection range from a vivid moment of a young girl counting the 'water hours', to a scorching tale of schoolyard bullying; a sleep-deprived mother; grandparents of a child at risk deciding where their loyalties lie; a young boy searching for his parents after the Sri Lanka tsunami; a widow walking the beach, and a woman secretly listening to the weather reports on radio: all trying with courage and fragility to present a face to the world that is 'fine'. By shining her light on these quiet moments in ordinary lives, Michelle follows in a tradition which includes Olga Masters, Amy Witting and Alice Munro. It is exciting to read a contemporary collection of such breadth. Fine is an astonishing fiction debut from a future star of Australian Literature.' (Publication summary)

'This is a hugely heart-warming love letter from an adult to their mother – rich both in tone and theme. Earth Orbit is a story that creeps up on you. In the opening paragraphs, the imagery is deceptively naïve and the child’s voice almost cloying, but what we come quickly to appreciate is that the spaceship we have entered is in fact a Datsun 120Y the child’s homeless mother has decorated with blue cellophane, pricked through with starry holes, in an act of maternal love and protection that borders on the heroic. 

'The redemptive power of story and the imagination underpins this moving narrative, as ongoing hardship is reshaped and so endured, the importance of what is real or not becoming less crucial than the fierce, joyful love between a mother and child.' (6)