Book Review: All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

 

The Book:

Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain overhead, 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: a razor-tongued actress named Greta and a fallen Japanese fighter pilot named Yukio.'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 the darkness and the light; of bones and blue skies. A buoyant, beautiful and magical novel abrim with warmth, wit and wonder, a love letter to Australia and the art of looking up.

Ref: Booktopia.com.au

The Author:

Trent Dalton is the international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe.

He returns with a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. Trent Dalton is an Australian journalist and literary fiction author. He lives with his wife Fiona Franzmann, in Melbourne.

Reader Reviews:

A beautiful book with brilliant writing. Trent Dalton is a master wordsmith and the land comes to life in his hands. The characters each have a life and the nasty ones are extremely nasty. Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend to a friend. Jen , Melbourne. Ref : Bookatopia reader’s reviews

I loved this writing about an extraordinary piece of Australian history . Tough and rugged to read. Definitely. Worth it? Absolutely. The gravedigger child stays with me. Amazing literature.Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend to a friend. Shell, Bowell. Bookatopia reader’s reviews

'Australia has a new literary hero. Molly Hook - part Cordelia, part Jo March, part Pippi Longstocking - pulls us into a story and a landscape that is mythic, beguiling and almost hallucinatory in its beauty. And instantly recognisable as our own.' Kristina Olsson

Our Review:

Most of us finished this book and all agreed that we liked the main character, Molly Hook. The little girl captured our hearts, we cared what happened to her and her two friends, the would-be actress, Greta Maze and the crashed Japanese pilot, Yukio Mikki on their heroic journey through the dark country south west of Darwin in search of the mysterious, aboriginal Longcoat Bob.

Molly’s life is brutal and basic and she faces many trials. Her father and his brother are disgusting, rough, tough top-end characters. She turns to the Sky to guide her through life and to survive.

This story is not pretty but it moves reasonably fast and holds your attention. We would recommend it. A good read.