After Story by Larissa Behrendt
When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England's most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together and help them reconcile the past.
Twenty-five years earlier the disappearance of Jasmine's older sister devastated their tight-knit community. This tragedy returns to haunt Jasmine and Della when another child mysteriously goes missing on Hampstead Heath. As Jasmine immerses herself in the world of her literary idols – including Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Virginia Woolf – Della is inspired to rediscover the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling. But sometimes the stories that are not told can become too great to bear.
Ambitious and engrossing, After Story celebrates the extraordinary power of words and the quiet spaces between. We can be ready to listen, but are we ready to hear? Source: Booktopia
The Author:
Prof. Larissa Behrendt AO FASSA FAAL is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. She was born in Cooma, New South Wales, in 1969,of Eualeyai/Kamillaroi descent on her father's side and non-Indigenous on her mothers side. Larissa is a legal academic, writer, filmmaker and Indigenous rights advocate. As of 2022 she is a professor of law and director of research and academic programs at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney, and holds the inaugural Chair in Indigenous Research at UTS.
She is admitted to the Supreme Court of the ACT and NSW as a barrister. Larissa is a Land Commissioner at the Land and Environment Court and the Alternate Chair of the Serious Offenders Review Board, a member of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia and a founding member of the Australian Academy of Law. She is the Chair of the Humanities and Creative Arts panel of the Australian Research Council College of Experts. She is the author of several books on Indigenous legal issues. This her third novel, After Story, was published in 2021.
She won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for her novel Home. Larissa is a Board Member of the Museum of Contemporary Art, a board member of Tranby Aboriginal College and a Director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. She was named as 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year. Larissa was nominated in three categories in the 2018 AACTA Awards, including Best Direction in Nonfiction Television. She directed Maralinga Tjarutja, a May 2020 television documentary made by Blackfella Films for ABC Television, which tells the story of the people of Maralinga, South Australia, since the 1950s British nuclear tests at Maralinga.
Sources: Booktopia, Wikipedia
Reader & Industry Reviews:
*“Behrendt's choice of authors and sites is clever as each one raises issues that are acutely alive in Australia now. For instance, Dickens leads to thinking and discussion of poverty and hardship, and the British Museum's collection of the bodily remains of Indigenous people takes us to the heart of racist colonialist behaviours. Despite the themes of racism, and trauma, Behrendt has kept a mostly light tone. There's quite a bit of humour in the group interactions and much worldly wisdom from Aunty Elaine back home. It's a quite remarkable achievement.” Lynn Elliot - Good Reads, reader .
*”This would have to be one of my favourite novels in 2021. A contemporary story that takes us out of Australia on a British literary tour with two indigenous women, a mother and daughter……………………………………..The story is narrated beautifully in turn by both mother and daughter in alternating chapters. A huge amount is covered, what is happening in both the present day and in not just the recent past but much earlier as well. Can't recommend it highly enough.” Kim- Good Reads reader source: Good Reads Australia
* “Told in alternating first-person narration by a mother and daughter (each having a chapter covering a day of the tour at a time), historical events are interwoven with extensive travelogue-type writing. For me, the characterisation could be much stronger and the plot is predictable in places. I also struggled with the alternating narration. If you like your misery, though, there is plenty here on offer.” Patrick- reader source: Amazon
Our Review:
This month’s book review is one of the few times since I have been writing for the Book Club group that we had a totally positive review by all members. The book was enthusiastically discussed by all who enjoyed it. We particularly enjoyed the way the author intertwined the plot of the mother and daughter relationship and their troubled family history, with their literary tour visits to the homes and important places in the lives of famous British authors. The mother character, Della, was our favourite character. At first she seemed a disinterested indigenous woman who had been pressured by her daughter to accompany her on this trip to England when a friend cancelled on her. Della had never been out of her home state and was carrying emotional baggage from the past. Throughout the novel Della begins to deal with the events that she had suppressed or hadn’t handled well from the past. Also she goes through an awakening of sorts with her own self esteem. She begins to compare the facts she learns about English history with that of Australian indigenous history and culture. She builds up relationships with the other travellers in the group, particularly the travel guide and especially her youngest daughter, Jazzie. This book at first seemed like a simple travel based novel but the further in you get in to it the more intriguing it gets. I found it hard to put it down after the first few chapters. We, all, recommend it as a good read.
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Thanks to Margaret Cassidy for providing this review.
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