Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir
Author: OLSSON KRISTINA
Format: PAPERBACK
Publication date: 20/03/2013
Imprint: UNI OF QUEENSLAND PRESS
Price: $29.95
Publishing status: Active
A powerful family memoir from the award-winning author of The China Garden
Kristina Olsson’s mother lost her infant son, Peter, when he was snatched from her arms as she boarded a train in the hot summer of 1950. She was young and frightened, trying to escape a brutal marriage, but despite the violence and cruelty she’d endured, she was not prepared for this final blow, this breathtaking punishment. Yvonne would not see her son again for nearly 40 years.
Kristina was the first child of her mother’s subsequent, much gentler marriage and, like her siblings, grew up unaware of the reasons behind her mother’s sorrow, though Peter’s absence resounded through the family, marking each one. Yvonne dreamt of her son by day and by night, while Peter grew up a thousand miles and a lifetime away, dreaming of his missing mother.
Boy, Lost tells how their lives proceeded from that shattering moment, the grief and shame that stalked them, what they lost and what they salvaged. But it is also the story of a family, the cascade of grief and guilt through generations, and the endurance of memory and faith.
PRAISE FOR KRISTINA OLSSON’S NOVEL THE CHINA GARDEN
‘Olsson is a gifted writer with considerable verbal flair …… a vivid and dramatic novel of small-town secrets.’ Age
‘The China Garden quietly explores the many complex chambers of the human heart and conscience. Evocative, delicately rendered yet emotionally powerful.’ Matthew Condon, author of The Trout Opera
‘It’s not uncommon to come across a story that moves rapidly, with dialogue that turns corners on three wheels or, alternatively, a story where the images and the music of the language cause you to catch your breath. It is uncommon to find both together.’ Sydney Morning Herald
ISBN: 9780702249532