The Alphabet of Light and Dark - Softcover

Wood, Danielle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 174114065X ISBN 13: 9781741140651

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2006

Synopsis

Melding personal, familial, and colonial history, this evocative novel explores the importance of love, family, and self-discovery. A few trinkets found in a sea chest and the fragmented memories of her grandfather's tall tales are all Essie Lewis has left of her family history. After her grandfather's death, Essie returns to Bruny Island, Tasmania, and to the lighthouse where her great-great-grandfather kept watch for nearly 40 years. Beneath the lighthouse, she begins to write the stories of her ancestors. But the island is also home to Pete Shelverton, a sculptor who hunts feral cats to make his own peace with the past. As Essie writes, she finds that Pete is a part of the history she can never escape.

About this title

About the Author:

Danielle Wood has an arts degree and has worked as a journalist with newspapers and radio and as a media officer for Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service.

From Publishers Weekly:

Set in the remote terrain of Bruny Island off the southern coast of Tasmania, Wood's evocative but static debut novel brings together a pair of troubled would-be lovers as they try to come to terms with their difficult pasts. Essie Lewis, a 30ish oceanographer, returns to the island from Perth to become the lighthouse keeper, a position that has played a prominent role in her family history. As she settles in, she runs into former childhood friend Pete Shelverton, a welder and metal sculptor who has buried himself in the task of ridding the island of feral cats. Wood details Essie's life through a series of diaries and documents from her past that outline the arc of her family; Pete's difficulties with women and socializing in general are less fully drawn. When they do come together, it is brief, awkward and incomplete. The one-note plot and sketchy romance put all of the burden on the island-as-exotic-locale and its history, and on Essie's own past there. The results are often lyrical, but end up less than satisfying. (Jan.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 174114065X
• ISBN 13: 9781741140651
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 348