Archive
Broken Song: T.G.H. Strehlow and Aboriginal possession by Barry Hill
Crime of Silence by Patricia Carlon & The Unquiet Night by Patricia Carlon
The Commonwealth of Speech: An Argument about Australia’s Past, Present and Future by Alan Atkinson
Radical Students by Alan Barcan & The Diary of a Vice-Chancellor by Raymond Priestly (ed. Ronald Ridley)
Archie Fusillo
The following books manage to avoid patronising their intended audience by eschewing proven ‘age-appropriate’ characters and/or sanitised versions of contemporary issues inserted into formulaic plots. Finding Grace (Allen & Unwin), by Alyssa Brugman, balances pathos and drama in telling the story of a young woman, Rachel, who discovers the real meaning of heroism and personal strength when she leaves university to care for car accident victim Grace. Wildlight (Penguin), by David Metzenthen, weaves historical detail, an ear for dialogue, and a keen sense of adventure into a clever story of self-discovery by his illiterate protagonist Dirk Wildlight. Ian Bone’s The Song of an Innocent Bystander (Penguin) grips the reader with the force of its moral and ethical dilemma, while never straying from being a probable story set in a world that is becoming less and less predictable.
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