All the Shimmering Skies is set in Darwin, in the far north of Australia before and during World War II. The main character is a young girl called Molly Hook and in the first chapter, her mother dies, leaving her to grow up with her drunken father and uncle who run the family boneyard. Before she dies, Mollly's mother told her to always look to the sky, to trust it. Molly takes this to heart and through all the indignities she suffers, never stops believing in the sky and its gifts.
Believing the family is cursed, as the Japanese bomb Darwin, Molly takes her trusty gravedigging spade and heads into the outback in search of a mythical man known as Longcoat Bob. Supposedly he is theone who cursed the family, so Molly is going to ask him to lift the curse. Along with Molly comes Greta, a razor-tongued actress and sometimes lover of her evil uncle Aubrey. And on the way they pick up a fallen Japanese pilot, Yukio.
This unlikely trio journey through some of Australia's most unforgiving land as they follow a fever-dream map scrawled by Molly's grandfather on a battered gold pan. Unbeknownst to them, Uncle Aubrey is on their tail, furious and hungry for the vast stores of gold Molly's grandfather told tales of after his own venture into the bush.
The people Molly and her travelling companions come across on their jorney are some of the worst people you could imagine, yet somehow, this scrappy band of three, guided by Molly's unwavering belief in the sky, manage to elude the worst scenarios.
The story in this book is often horrific and brutal, but it's written in such a poetic and beautiful way it doesn't feel heavy. And the landscape is described so well it feels like perhaps the most important character in the story. I enjoyed it immensely!
If you like beautiful writing that doesn't forget it's supposed to be telling a story (I've read too many books that are beuatifully written, but say nothing) this one is very recommended.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
The bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton returns with All Our Shimmering Skies - a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain down, motherless Molly Hook, the gravedigger's daughter, turns once again to the sky for guidance. She carries a stone heart inside a duffel bag next to the map that leads to Longcoat Bob, the deep-country sorcerer who put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. Run, Molly, run, says the daytime sky. Run to the vine forests. Run to northern Australia's wild and magical monsoon lands. Run to friendship. Run to love. Run. Because the graverobber's coming, Molly, and the night-time sky is coming with him. So run, Molly, run.
All Our Shimmering Skies is a story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth and the secrets we bury inside ourselves. It is an odyssey of true love and grave danger, of darkness and light, of bones and blue skies; a buoyant, beautiful and magical novel abrim with warmth, wit and wonder; and a love letter to Australia and the art of looking up.
No comments:
Post a Comment