The Things She's Seen

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The Things She's Seen, by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina

Here's my title for AusNovember!  I've been excitedly waiting for it to wend its way through the library process so I could check it out.   This is a new YA novel by a brother and sister team.  

 

Beth is dead, to begin with.  The only person who can still see her is her dad, who was so devastated by her death in a car accident that she stuck around in hopes of helping him get back on his feet.  He's a policeman -- a detective -- and he's been asked to investigate a house fire in a tiny country town that left one unidentified person dead.  A simple case for a guy who needs easing back into his job.

Or perhaps not.  Beth is sure there's more to this than meets the eye.  The house was a group home for foster kids, run by an administrator and a nurse, but nobody ever saw the kids out and about.  The single witness to the fire is a girl who will only communicate what she knows in an elliptical, symbolic, storytelling way.  And the police chief is very nervous.

This is a mystery, but that's less than half of what it is.  It's also the stories of Beth, Catching, and Crow.  It's a meditation on how truth is experienced and told, and on the many intersections, mostly painful, in Australia between Aboriginal and white cultures.

It's very, very good -- emotionally gripping, the characters beautifully drawn, and the language often raw and poetic at the same time.  I recommend!


Comments

  1. RachelNovember 21, 2021 at 1:45 PM

    I love that cover! I always thought the cover was the most important way to draw me to read a blurb is the cover...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JeanNovember 21, 2021 at 5:09 PM

      The cover is both beautiful and very meaningful, so I love it. :)

      Delete
  2. Jenny @ Reading the EndNovember 22, 2021 at 4:58 AM

    Aw yeah, I thought this book was lovely. I keep hoping to see more books from these authors soon! I read Ambelin Kwaymullina's SF/ecofantasy series and liked it a lot, if you're in the mood for that sort of thing.

    ReplyDelete

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