Joan London (1) (1948–)
Teoksen Gilgamesh tekijä
Katso täsmennyssivulta muut tekijät, joiden nimi on Joan London.
Tietoja tekijästä
Joan Elizabeth London was born on July 24, 1948 in Australia. She is an author of short stories, screenplays and novels. She graduated from the University of Western Australia having studied English and French, has taught English as a second language and is a bookseller. London is the author of two näytä lisää collections of stories. The first, Sister Ships, won The Age Book of the Year (1986), and the second, Letter to Constantine, won the Steele Rudd Award and the West Australian Premier's Award for Fiction (both in 1994). The two were published together as The New Dark Age. She has published three novels, Gilgamesh, The Good Parents and The Golden Age. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Stella Prize for her novel The Golden Age. This title also shared n the 2015 NSW Premier's People Choice Award along with Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey. Joan London also won the $30,000 Nita B Kibble Literary Award in 2015 which recognises the work of an established Australian woman writer for her title The Golden Age. This same title also won in the fiction category for the Queensland Literary Awards 2015. Joan London was awarded a living treasure award in 2015 by the Western Australian state government. The award is given to `highly regarded and skilled' career artists who have worked within or created work about Western Australia, passed on their knowledge to other artists, and demonstrated a commitment or contribution to the Western Australian arts sector. In 2015 London also won the Patrick White Literary Award which is awarded to authors who 'have made a significant but inadequately recognised contribution to Australian literature'. She was also recognized with a Prime Minister Literary Award in the fiction category with her title The Golden Age. In 2016, The Golden Age won the WA Premier¿s Book Award for Fiction. (Bowker Author Biography) näytä vähemmän
Tekijän teokset
The Watch Tower: Text Classics 1 kappale
Associated Works
Goodbye to Romance: Stories by New Zealand and Australian Women Writers, 1930-1988 (1989) — Avustaja — 10 kappaletta
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Muut nimet
- LONDON, Joan
- Syntymäaika
- 1948-07-24
- Sukupuoli
- female
- Kansalaisuus
- Australia
- Syntymäpaikka
- Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Asuinpaikat
- Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
- Koulutus
- University of Western Australia
- Ammatit
- short story writer
novelist
bookseller
ESL teacher
screenwriter - Palkinnot ja kunnianosoitukset
- Patrick White Award (2015)
Jäseniä
Keskustelut
Gilgamesh by Joan London, Orange January/July (syyskuu 2011)
Kirja-arvosteluja
Listat
Palkinnot
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Associated Authors
Tilastot
- Teokset
- 7
- Also by
- 2
- Jäseniä
- 937
- Suosituimmuussija
- #27,412
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 3.7
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 37
- ISBN:t
- 62
- Kielet
- 3
- Kuinka monen suosikki
- 4
Frank Gold came to Australia with his parents from Hungary, all having survived the Nazis during the war. Australia wasn't their first choice but it is the first place that offered them a home away from the chaos of post-war Hungary. His mother, a concert pianist in Budapest, does not like Perth where they have been settled but his father has taken to the new life. When Frank contracted polio his mother saw it as a final curse and stopped playing the piano. Frank is twelve years old when he gets polio and initially he was in the adult hospital but after his friend, Sullivan, died it was felt that he would be better off with children so he is sent to The Golden Age. Sullivan was in an iron lung and Frank used to sit with him and they would talk about poetry. Transcribing Sullivan's poems and writing some of his own led Frank to decide that being a poet would be his life's vocation. Frank is the oldest patient in the Golden Age but he notices Elsa who is just a little younger and they are drawn together. Soon they try to find places to be alone together and, if that's not possible, to at least have private conversations. They are perhaps a little young to be "in love" but they definitely love each other. The author intersperses the story of Frank and Elsa with ruminations about other people connected with them so we learn about how Frank's mother was able to protect Frank when the Nazis were rounding up everyone of Jewish heritage. And we learn about Sister Olive Penny whose husband died early in the war and whose daughter has been placed with friends in order to attend school which leaves their relationship somewhat strained. Sister Penny is wonderful with the patients and always seems to be wherever someone is needed but she has to make do with a series of men for her own needs. The reader comes to care for each character in the book, even Elsa's jealous younger sister.
I was discussing this book with a friend who contracted polio when she was an infant. She thought the book was wonderfully written but she wondered if she felt that because of her own circumstances. I was able to reassure her that it was a book that would speak to a great many people as it did to myself. One review I read compared the author, favourable, to Alice Munro and I think that is an apt comparison. The Golden Age was written in 2014 and it doesn't appear that the author has published anything since which is a pity. There are some previous works, both short stories and novels, so I will have to look for those but, unfortunately, there don't appear to be any in my library system.… (lisätietoja)