Cirrus@Austlit

Le serpent arc-en-ciel rampe sous le bush stérile du Nord de l’Australie lointaine. Il est pour les Aborigènes le serpent de la Création, celui qui unit les hommes et le monde qu’ils habitent. Et, quand ce monde est remodelé, détruit par des colons qui se le sont approprié, le sort des Aborigènes n’est plus que perte d’identité.

C’est une déchéance qui est dite ici. Sous forme de portraits, de scènes de vie, Alexis Wright brosse le quotidien peu reluisant de gens qui bien souvent n’ont le choix qu’entre prison, centre de désintoxication ou suicide.

Tel le serpent qui pourrait bien ressortir de terre et raconter la véritable histoire, Alexis Wright parle pour ceux qui n’ont plus de voix, décrypte le réel en scrutant les âmes et charge son écriture de toute la force d’un imaginaire ancestral. (Source: Actes Sud website)

English Translation:

'The rainbow snake slithers under the sterile bush of distant Northern Australia. For the Aboriginal people, he is the snake of Creation, the one who unites men and the world they inhabit. And when this world is remodelled, destroyed by the settlers who have reclaimed it, the fate of Aborigines is reduced to a loss of their identity.'

'A tale of degradation is told here. Through the use of portraits, of scenes of life, Alexis Wright paints the everyday life of people who often only have a choice between jail, a detox centre or suicide.'

'Like the snake who could well come out of the earth once more and recount the true story, Alexis Wright speaks for those who no longer have a voice, decrypts the reality by scrutinising the souls and charges her writing with all the strength of an ancestral imagination.' (English translation by Maelle Farquhar, 2013)

'In this haunting novel, Cameron's life changes when he retreats to a small community in the Westernport swampland. The landscape becomes his obsession and photographs reveal unsettling images from the past.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'"A wave of colossal size towers over the dunes. A black wave that arcs so high it drags down the sun, stars and moon from the sky and turns the day to pitch. Thousands of tonnes of water come crashing over the land, ripping low scrub from the sandy earth and collapsing fibro houses like cards as it streams towards the town."

'There are some summers, like there are some waves, that can never be forgotten. Hannah has dropped out of university to learn how to 'walk on water'. At Ruben's Cafe at the end of the Peninsula, she meets Jake, who has demons of his own and dreams of surfing the night. They come from different worlds but what brings them together is a love affair with the sea.

'A remarkable novel about fear and the overcoming of it, about love and learning to give into it, and about the power of the imagination.' (Publisher's blurb)

'This is the story of a search for the lost white woman in the wilds of Gippsland, Victoria in 1846 - a quest in defence of virtue and "civilised" values. It is also a story of fear, history, myth and the power of the imagination.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.