Set in various European historical settings, each of the stories in this collection plays in its own way on the theme of the relation of the individual to the sum-total of human history and geography.
'Piet Van Mechelen is obsessed with capturing Antwerp in pictures. His journey of discovery, through streets and alleys of the changing Flemish city, takes place at a time when new discoveries, theories and inventions are shaking society. His aim is admirable, but his obsession dismays his young wife, and the elements of his occupation bring about his downfall. This story is modelled on actual events that took place in 1877' (publication blurb).
A fictionalised episode from the life of Franz Lehár, 'The Land of Smiles,' was inspired by the picture "Scene from Musical Comedy" (1967) by Jack Brack (held by the University of Western Australia art collection, the Lawrence Wilson Gallery, Nedlands, Perth).
[Source: Rosanne Dingli, Gangway 16 (2000)]
The Day of the Bird : Collected Stories
Perth
:
Rosanne Dingli
,
2012
6064769
2012
selected work
short story
'Award-winning literary fiction author Rosanne Dingli follows the success of The Astronomer’s Pig and Counting Churches – The Malta Stories with another volume. Read fourteen atmospheric stories crammed with exotic ingredients and locations, which engage and somehow ring with the familiar and the unexpected. Historical fiction, folkloric tales, and anecdotes linked strongly with their location are this author's favourite forays into storytelling. Each short story or novella has indelible links with the facts that form its base and background' (publisher's blurb).
The collection comprises all the stories published in Vision or Delusion (2010) and Over and Above (2011) - both out of print.
