Author: Alan Blunt Publisher: Random House Australia ISBN: 0143780360 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
A firsthand account of the shearing sheds of the 1950s and 1960s. The son of a shearer, Alan Blunt spent his teenage years in the woolsheds. As his father labored, Alan would imagine himself opening the batting for Australia or boxing for the world middleweight championship, only to be startled out of his daydream with a cry of: "Wool away, boy. Wake up " In this colorful memoir Alan chronicles all the larger-than-life personalities he met: the misfits, romantics, larrikins, and psychopaths. From the cooks who ruled the sheds--those solitary, often crazy men who could make or break a team's stay--to the gun shearers and maverick managers. With an irrepressible wit, he captures the voices of the men he worked with and brings to life a golden era of shearing.
Author: Geoffrey Hope Gibson Publisher: Loving Healing Press ISBN: 1615992707 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 255
Book Description
ÿ"Powerful and unforgettable." At the beginning of the twentieth century, the son of an English lord settles in Australia and marries an indigenous woman. It is an age when interracial relationships are not only misunderstood, but result in family conflict, disgrace, and disinheritance. Then the Christian missionaries come. They destroy the timeless culture and beliefs of Australia's indigenous people, leaving them to flounder in a soup of the white man's religious beliefs. The great-grandmother's telling of the family story is the nourishment that holds it together through war, and the constant battle to adjust and exist in a white man's world. The Christian missionaries will not tolerate any belief or view other than their own. Amid all this religious and racial conflict, the great-grandchildren adjust and eventually prosper. The young man distinguishes himself in the conflict in Vietnam, while his sister finds her place and flourishes in the food and catering industry. From the Boer War through two World Wars, the Vietnam War, and the last decades of the twentieth century, Matriarch takes readers on an eye-opening journey through Australian history, culminating in a serial murder mystery that opens old family wounds. Author Geoffrey Hope Gibson's historical sweep of Australia's past is as broad as James A. Michener's. His style is reminiscent of Richard Llewellyn's depictions of Wales and Argentina, and his depiction of Aborigine mistreatment rivals the most frightening moments in Tayeb Salih's classic postcolonial novelÿSeason of Migration to the North. "Matriarchÿis a captivating story that will take readers through time within the aboriginal heart in Australia, and feel the raw truth of their history and social evolution to current times. A Must Read!" --Susan Violante, Managing Editor of Reader Views, and author ofÿInnocent War "This sprawling epic tale of love, marriage, injustice, ancestors, misguided religion, grief, rage, and murder is a testament to how the past never dies. In one family's struggles, Gibson creates a story that calls forth the best and worst of what it means to be human. Powerful and unforgettable." --Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and award-winning author ofÿNarrow LivesÿandÿThe Best Place Learn more at www.GeoffreyGibson.com From the World Voices Series Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com Fiction : Sagas Fiction : Thrillers : Historical
Author: Witi Ihimaera Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited ISBN: 1869797272 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 505
Book Description
This is the first volume of Witi Ihimaera's enthralling, award-winning memoir, packed with stories from the formative years of this much-loved writer. Witi Ihimaera is a consummate storyteller — one critic calling him one of our ‘finest and most memorable’. Some of his best stories, however, are about his own life. This honest, stirring work tells of the family and community into which Ihimaera was born, of his early life in rural New Zealand, of family secrets, of facing anguish and challenges, and of laughter and love. As Ihimaera recounts the myths that formed his early imagination, he also reveals the experiences from real life that wriggled into his fiction. Alive with an inventive, stimulating narrative and vividly portrayed relatives, this memoir is engrossing, entertaining and moving, but, more than this, it is also a vital record of what it means to grow up Maori. Winner of the Ockham New Zealand Book Award 2016 for the General Non Fiction category.
Author: Alan Blunt
Author: Emilie Poulsson
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Author: W. S. Kirby
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Author: Geoffrey Hope Gibson
Author: Witi Ihimaera
Author: George Amos Dorsey
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