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y separately published work icon The Mermaid Cafe single work   novel   humour  
Issue Details: First known date: 2005... 2005 The Mermaid Cafe
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Sydney, 1984: when 20-year-old Wallace Newman is awarded an arts grant he says goodbye to his small country town and heads to the coast to paint pictures of mermaids. Here he books into Rafferty's Private Hotel by the sea and walks into the lives of a ramshackle cast of characters, led by the indomitable landlady, Pru Rafferty. Wallace quickly discovers that the closer he gets to the water the more elusive his mermaids become. Failing to arouse his muse, he pursues his big brother Stacey, who packed his bags of wigs, high heels and frocks, and left the family home a year before. Now living in Newtown with his boyfriend, Miron, Stacey is in the final stages of a program for sexual reassignment. He needs a big favour. When the money from the arts grant funds Stacey's sex change, the search for 'true art' becomes the discovery of the 'true self', and Wallace realises he has entered a world that is filled with the unexpected.'

(Source: Hodder Headline Australia website, http://www.hha.com.au/books/0733618944.html)
Sighted: 07/03/2005

Notes

  • Dedication: For my family and for T.D.
  • Epigraph: The minutes went by on tiptoe with their fingers to their lips. Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Paperbacks : The Mermaid Cafe Graham Clark , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 17 - 18 September 2005; (p. 6)

— Review of The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
Other Voices Tony Maniaty , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16-17 April 2005; (p. 12)

— Review of Beyond Mombasa Frank Coates , 2005 single work novel ; The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel ; Pathway to Treason Ken Harris , 2005 single work novel
Fiction Cameron Woodhead , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 March 2005; (p. 4)

— Review of The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
[Review] The Mermaid Cafe Erin O'Brien , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Bookseller & Publisher , February vol. 84 no. 7 2005; (p. 29)

— Review of The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
Crew Weaves an Artful Web Debra Adelaide , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 March 2005; (p. 11)

— Review of The Lace Maker's Daughter Gary Crew , 2005 single work novel ; The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
Hoochie Coogee Barry Oakley , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 8 March vol. 123 no. 6460 2005; (p. 61)

— Review of The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
Crew Weaves an Artful Web Debra Adelaide , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 March 2005; (p. 11)

— Review of The Lace Maker's Daughter Gary Crew , 2005 single work novel ; The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
[Review] The Mermaid Cafe Erin O'Brien , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Bookseller & Publisher , February vol. 84 no. 7 2005; (p. 29)

— Review of The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
Fiction Cameron Woodhead , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 March 2005; (p. 4)

— Review of The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel
Other Voices Tony Maniaty , 2005 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 16-17 April 2005; (p. 12)

— Review of Beyond Mombasa Frank Coates , 2005 single work novel ; The Mermaid Cafe Andrew Maconachie , 2005 single work novel ; Pathway to Treason Ken Harris , 2005 single work novel
Last amended 15 Apr 2021 09:21:46
Settings:
  • Coogee, Randwick area, Sydney Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 1980s
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