Glenroy
1 primary work • 7 total works
Book 6
In 1960 the West Indies arrive in Australia and Michael, who is sixteen, is enthralled. If, like his heroes, he has the gift of speed, he will move beyond his suburb into the great world ...
As his summer unfolds, Michael realises that there are other ways to live. When the calypso chorus accompanying Frank Worrell and his team fades, Michael has leartn many things ... about his parents, a girl called Kathleen Marsden, and about himself.
The Gift of Speed is a masterful blend of story-telling, memorable characters and a uniquely Australian sensibility by a novelist at the height of his powers.
'That exotic tribe was us. And the time we have taken, our moment.'
1970, Glenroy. One summer's morning Rita is awakened by a dream of her husband, only to look out onan empty bed.It's been years sinceVic moved north and left her life, but her house holds memories and part of her remains tied to a different time. As their son Michael enters the tender and challenging realm of first love, he too discovers that innocence can only be sustained for so long.
As they prepare to celebrate Glenroy's 100th anniversary, the residents of the Melbourne suburb look back on a time of radical change. The time has come for them to consider the real meaning of progress - both as a community and in their personal lives.
The Time We Have Taken is a powerful and poignant look at the extraordinary that lies within the ordinary, from a writer of breathtaking prose.
There they are, still as a photograph, listening for the distant thud of the sun as it prepares to drop from the sky...
On a hot summer's night, a family of three are off to a party in their bristling suburbia. But nothing is as it seems and soon we are walking with them through the past lives of a bully, a drunk and a disaffected youth.
As the story of the neighbourhood unfolds the old and the new, diesel and steam, town and country all collide - and nobody will be left unaffected.
The Art of the Engine Driver is a luminous and evocative take on ordinary suburban lives told with an extraordinary power and depth.