image of person or book cover 1602493675427026590.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Spirit House single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 Spirit House
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'David is thirteen and confused. His mum has gone off with her lover and sent David to his grandparents in Bondi to give her new relationship some "space". Sometimes it breaks your heart to understand.

'David's grandfather, Jimmy, a Jewish war veteran and survivor of the Thai-Burma railway, is seventy. Haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, the only person he can confide in is a thirteen-year-old from a different world. Sometimes it breaks your heart to be understood.

'Spirit House is a story of Changi and the Thai-Burma railway, of old men living with the horrors of their past, and about making sense of the daunting business of growing up.' (From the publisher's website.)

Notes

  • Dedication:
    To Jimmy and Freda Benjamin
    ava ashalom

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Atlantic Books ,
      2013 .
      image of person or book cover 7200651146402220985.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 368p.p.
      Reprinted: 1 Sep 2014
      Note/s:
      • Published 1st August 2013.
      ISBN: 9781782390879 (pbk), 9781782391104 (ebk), 9781782390886
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 7950492298375496523.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 368p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 21st October 2015
      ISBN: 9780143572343

Works about this Work

Words of Great Worth Robyn Annear , David Day , Lyn McCredden , Peter Pierce , Lucy Sussex , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 4 August 2012; (p. 30-31)
This column comprises the judges' comments on the shortlisted works for the 2012 Age Book of the Year Award. (The list includes three titles, outside the scope of AustLit, by James Boyce, Paul Ham and Jane Gleeson-White.)
Untitled Jorge Salavert , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , May vol. 4 no. 2 2012;

— Review of Spirit House Mark Dapin , 2011 single work novel
Miles Franklin Longlist Has Room for Both Genders Susan Wyndham , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29 March 2012; (p. 5)
The Silver Age of Fiction Peter Pierce , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 70 no. 4 2011; (p. 110-115)

‘In human reckoning, Golden Ages are always already in the past. The Greek poet Hesiod, in Works and Days, posited Five Ages of Mankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron (Ovid made do with four). Writing in the Romantic period, Thomas Love Peacock (author of such now almost forgotten novels as Nightmare Abbey, 1818) defined The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) in which their order was Iron, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To the Golden Age, in their archaic greatness, belonged Homer and Aeschylus. The Silver Age, following it, was less original, but nevertheless 'the age of civilised life'. The main issue of Peacock's thesis was the famous response that he elicited from his friend Shelley - Defence of Poetry (1821).’ (Publication abstract)

Off the Shelf : Fiction Lorien Kaye , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 29 October 2011; (p. 30)

— Review of Spirit House Mark Dapin , 2011 single work novel
Fighting the Shame of Surrender Stephen Romei , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10 - 11 September 2011; (p. 18-19)

— Review of Spirit House Mark Dapin , 2011 single work novel
Ghosts of the Fallen Peter Pierce , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 10 September 2011; (p. 25)

— Review of Spirit House Mark Dapin , 2011 single work novel
Ghosts of War Bring Past to Life Sue Turnbull , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17-18 September 2011; (p. 34-35)

— Review of Spirit House Mark Dapin , 2011 single work novel
Untitled David Cohen , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , August vol. 91 no. 2 2011; (p. 30)

— Review of Spirit House Mark Dapin , 2011 single work novel
Fiction Ian Barry , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 15 - 16 October 2011; (p. 22)

— Review of Spirit House Mark Dapin , 2011 single work novel
The Silver Age of Fiction Peter Pierce , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 70 no. 4 2011; (p. 110-115)

‘In human reckoning, Golden Ages are always already in the past. The Greek poet Hesiod, in Works and Days, posited Five Ages of Mankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron (Ovid made do with four). Writing in the Romantic period, Thomas Love Peacock (author of such now almost forgotten novels as Nightmare Abbey, 1818) defined The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) in which their order was Iron, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To the Golden Age, in their archaic greatness, belonged Homer and Aeschylus. The Silver Age, following it, was less original, but nevertheless 'the age of civilised life'. The main issue of Peacock's thesis was the famous response that he elicited from his friend Shelley - Defence of Poetry (1821).’ (Publication abstract)

Miles Franklin Longlist Has Room for Both Genders Susan Wyndham , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29 March 2012; (p. 5)
Words of Great Worth Robyn Annear , David Day , Lyn McCredden , Peter Pierce , Lucy Sussex , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 4 August 2012; (p. 30-31)
This column comprises the judges' comments on the shortlisted works for the 2012 Age Book of the Year Award. (The list includes three titles, outside the scope of AustLit, by James Boyce, Paul Ham and Jane Gleeson-White.)
Last amended 16 Feb 2021 09:55:10
Subjects:
  • Burma-Thailand Railway,
    c
    Burma,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • 1940s
Settings:
  • Bondi, Bondi area, Sydney Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,
  • 2000-2099
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