Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Bayport Public Library | FICTION HAY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | FICTION HAY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Valley Library (Lakeland) | FICTION HAY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi) | FICTION HAY | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
For fans of The Light Between Oceans , this "exquisitely written, true book of wonders" (Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author) explores the aftermath of World War II in an Australian seaside town, and the mysterious poem that changes the lives of those who encounter it.
In 1948, in a town overlooking the vast, blue ocean, Anikka Lachlan has all she ever wanted--until a random act transforms her into another postwar widow, destined to raise her daughter on her own. Awash in grief, she looks for answers in the pages of her favorite books and tries to learn the most difficult lesson of all: how to go on living.
A local poet, Roy McKinnon, experiences a different type of loss. How could his most powerful work come out of the brutal chaos of war, and why is he now struggling to regain his words and his purpose in peacetime? His childhood friend Dr. Frank Draper also seeks to reclaim his pre-war life but is haunted by his failure to help those who needed him most--the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
Then one day, on the mantle of her sitting room, Ani finds a poem. She knows neither where it came from, nor who its author is. But she has her suspicions. An unexpected and poignant love triangle emerges, between Ani, the poem, and the poet--whoever he may be.
Written in clear, shining prose, The Railwayman's Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings--and how difficult it can be to tell them apart. It is an exploration of life, loss, tragedy, and joy, of connection and separation, longing and acceptance, and an unadulterated celebration of love that "will have you feeling every emotion at once" ( Bustle ).
Author Notes
Ashley Hay is an Australian author of fiction and nonfiction. She has written over twenty-five essays and short stories. In 2016, she won the Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing for her work, The forest at the edge of time. It was first published in the Australian Book Review and will also be included in the anthology The Best Australian Science Writing 2016. Her novels include The Railwayman's Wife which won the 2013 Colin Roderick Prize and the People's Choice Award at the 2014 NSW Premier's Prize, The Body in the Clouds, and A Hundred Small Lessons. Her nonfiction books include Museum (with Robyn Stacey), Herbarium (with Robyn Syacey), Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions, and The Secret: The Strange Marriage of Annabella Milbanke and Lord Byron. She was the editor of Best Australian Science Writing 2014.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Kirkus Review
A year in the lives of Anikka "Ani" Lachlan, a young widow, and Roy McKinnon, a poet back from the World War II battlefield, provides a bittersweet tale of adjustment to life's tragedies. Hay's lovely language and imagery overlay grim content. Death is death, but does it matter how one died...or why? How do you go on after a loss? And why should you? Ani struggles to gain a foothold as her idyllic life on Australia's rugged coast is tragically altered after her railway-man husband's death in an accident. Inherent optimism, love for her child, and the community's supportand perhaps thoughts of her new friend Royprovide her strength. Roy fights emotional battle scars and finds himself unable to write the profound poems he wrote during the war. He looks to Ani for his healing, and she becomes both his muse and secret love. His breakthrough poem is about Ani, and as he waits for her to acknowledge it, never daring to ask what she thought of it, his despondency grows. Ultimately Ani and Roy find their own ways into a new peace. Hay shifts between past and present to gradually pull together the fullness of her subject: life's randomnesswhy, for example, one person dies while another "keeps walking clear." The narrative flows slowly to its unsettling conclusion. Hay is both cerebral and emotional in portraying life's catastrophes and the way people cope. As if her message is too raw to lay out in blazing color, she camouflages it in poetry and half-seen imagesand it works. The message is clear, and the shocks are softened but no less there. Multilayered, graceful, couched in poetry, supremely honest, gentle yet jarring, Hay's thought-provoking novel pulls you along slowly, like a deep river that is deceptively calm but full of hidden rapids. Much to ponder. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
World War II was over, Ani's husband, Mac, enjoyed his job on the railways, and their house was full of light and laughter. Their coastal Australian town of Thirroul was small, but Ani was content. Until Mac suffers a fatal accident, turning Ani into another postwar widow. Faced with the insurmountable task of living without Mac, Ani throws herself into a job at the library, where she is forced to interact with the patrons. One frequent patron is Roy, a poet frustrated by writer's block and haunted by memories from the front. As Ani and Roy wrestle with their private tragedies, they find they have more in common than they ever imagined. Hay immerses the reader in Mac and Ani's relationship, splicing flashbacks to happier times into the central narrative. Hay's poetic gifts are evident in her descriptions of the wild coastal landscape and Roy's measured verse. This poignant, elegant novel delves into the depth of tragedy, the shaky ground of recovery, and the bittersweet memories of lost love. Fans of Jodi Daynard and Susanna Kearsley will adore this.--Turza, Stephanie Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Anikka, widowed at 36, is a new mother going about her quiet life as a librarian in the coastal Australian town of Thirroul, trying to hold on to memories of her late husband, the titular railwayman. The year is 1948, and the local men are trying to forget their experiences fighting in World War II. One of these veterans, Roy, struggles to overcome writer's block until he finds a muse in -Anikka, unbeknownst to her. Brief flashbacks show the life Anikka shared with her loving husband, and give insight into his interactions with townsfolk in the days leading up to the war. Significant moments are described with astoundingly solid writing, and the coastal setting is beautifully depicted. VERDICT Previously released to critical acclaim in Australia in 2013 and a 2014 winner of the Colin Roderick Prize in the UK, this second novel from Hay (The Body in the Clouds) is the kind of slow, ruminative, evocative story that will appeal to devotees of literary fiction who read primarily for language.-Sonia Reppe, Stickney-Forest View P.L., IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Railwayman's Wife 1 SHE SITS, her legs folded beneath her. The fingers of one hand trace the upholstery's pattern while the other hand holds the pages of the book. It could be any day, any year: call it 1935, 1938, 1945, or somewhere decades away in her future. Perhaps it's the day after her wedding, the day after her daughter's birth, the last day of the war, the last day of her life. Whenever it is, Anikka Lachlan is reading, swallowed by the shapes and spaces made by rows of dark letters on pale paper. She wets one finger, not slowly, but absently, and moves it to turn the next page. From outside, across the roofs of this small town, comes a sharp line of noise--a train's brakes and the squeal of wheel on rail, metal on metal. Ani looks up from the page but at nothing, and at nowhere, as if the room she's sitting in and the rest of this whole cacophonous world do not, at this moment, quite exist. The sound fades. The silence holds. She looks down, and finds the next word. Excerpted from The Railwayman's Wife by Ashley Hay All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
