Also writes as: Janette Turner ; Alex Juniper
Born: Established: 1942 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender:
Female
Expatriate
assertion
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The Claimant
Sydney South
:
HarperCollins Australia
,
2014
7190257
2014
single work
novel
''So then, here it is. The unadorned un-self-flattering gospel, the never-before-told story our intricately intertwined lives ... Listen: I know things that no one else knows. Trust me.'
'Manhattan, 1996: the trial of the Vanderbilt claimant is finally coming to an end. The case - long, complex, riven with unknowns, attracting huge media and social interest - has been seeking to establish whether or not a certain man is the son of the fabulously wealthy and well-connected Vanderbilt family. The son went missing, presumed dead, while serving in the Vietnam war. There is huge fortune, prestige and status at stake. But is the man - a handsome cattle farmer from Queensland - really the Vanderbilt heir? And if so, why does he seem so reluctant to be found?
'From one of our foremost novelists, The Claimant is a compelling and ravishingly readable novel about the fluid, shifting and ultimately elusive nature of identity and the reasons why people seek to change their names, their identities or their personalities.' (Publication abstract)
Forecast : Turbulence
Pymble
:
Fourth Estate
,
2011
Z1803542
2011
selected work
short story
'Forecast Turbulence is a breathtaking and exquisitely lyrical collection of nine short stories and one memoir piece from internationally acclaimed Australian author Janette Turner Hospital. Featuring a compelling and enigmatic cast of characters - a loner obsessed with the beautiful face of a neighbour; a militant religious cult; the mute skipper of a whale-watching boat; a teenager who hasn't set eyes on his father since the breakdown of his parents' marriage; the daughters of a charming family man (and paedophile); a child and his grandmother sitting out a hurricane; two vulnerable girls visiting their stepfathers in prison; a young woman deeply ashamed of what her father has become; and the grief-stricken parents of an abducted child - Turner Hospital sensitively weaves their stories of raw emotion, heartbreaking vulnerability and incredible resolve, revealing their quest to hold their centres and maintain equilibrium in a turbulent and uncertain world.' (From the publisher's website.)
Orpheus Lost
Pymble
London
:
Fourth Estate
,
2007
Z1364404
2007
single work
novel
(taught in 5 units)
'In this compelling reimagining of the Orpheus story, Leela May travels into an underworld of kidnapping, torture and despair in search of her lover, Mishka.
'Leela is a mathematical genius who escaped her hardscrabble Southern home town to study in Boston. It's there that she meets a young Australian musician, Mishka. From the moment she first hears him play, busking in a subway, his music grips her, and they quickly become lovers.
'Then one day Leela is picked up off the street and taken to an interrogation centre somewhere outside the city. There has been an 'incident', an explosion on the underground; terrorists are suspected, security is high. And her old childhood friend Cobb is conducting a very questionable interrogation. Over the years Cobb has never forgotten Leela and the secrets she knows.
'Now he reveals to her that Mishka may not be all he seems. That there may be more to him than growing up in the Daintree rainforest in northern Queensland in an eccentric musical family. Leela has already discovered on her own account that some nights when Mishka claims to be at the music lab are actually spent at a cafe. A cafe, Cobb tells her, known to be a terrorist contact point.
'Who can she believe?
'And then Mishka disappears.' (Publisher's blurb)
