Free shipping on orders over $99
Shell

Shell

by Kristina Olsson
Paperback
Publication Date: 03/10/2019

Share This Book:

RRP  $23.80

RRP means 'Recommended Retail Price' and is the price our supplier recommends to retailers that the product be offered for sale. It does not necessarily mean the product has been offered or sold at the RRP by us or anyone else.

$23.50
'The day the great man sang, heat blazed in haloes over Bennelong Point. This is what Pearl will remember, later, this is what she will say: that his voice turned the air holy. Men, sweat-slicked, stood with bowed heads or hung off scaffolds, swatting at flies and tears. Few looked at the singer; they needed all their senses to hear. Needed their whole bodies, skin and eyes and hearts, to absorb what they couldn't say: that sacredness had returned to this place. It flowed through them on a single human voice, through their bodies and the building that was rising beneath their hands.'

'A shimmering love letter to Sydney, with the husk of the emerging Opera House its beating heart ... Required reading'  Australian Women's Weekly

Sydney, 1960s: newspaper reporter Pearl Keogh has been relegated to the women's pages as punishment for her involvement in the anti-war movement, and is desperate to find her two young brothers before they are conscripted.
 
Newly arrived from Sweden, Axel Lindquist is set to work as a sculptor on the Sydney Opera House. Haunted by his father's acts in the Second World War, he seeks solace in his attempts to create a unique piece that will do justice to the vision of Jørn Utzon, the controversial architect of the Opera House's construction.

Pearl and Axel's lives orbit and collide, as they both struggle in the eye of the storm. This is a soaring, optimistic novel of art and culture, and of love and fate.

A beautifully crafted, spellbinding story of love, loss and identity, set in the shadow of the Vietnam War, for readers who loved All the Light We Cannot See and The Goldfinch. 

Praise for Shell:

'Destined to become a classic due to the exquisite imagery of [Olsson's] prose. If the test of contemporary fiction is whether a second reading delivers fresh layers of insight and meaning, the answer here is an unequivocal yes'  Caroline Baum, Sydney Morning Herald, The Best Books of 2018

'This narrative of war and hope, architecture and yearning, and old and new world, makes Shell a novel of energy and enlightenment, and, to boot, a source of delightful reading' Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's List and In the Name of the Father

'A luminous look at a city at a time of change, a time when the building of the Sydney Opera House was a reach for greatness' The New York Times

'Olsson's writing is beautiful, captivating, and is enough in itself to recommend this book ... Her descriptions are vivid, evocative' New York Journal of Books

'This is a novel with a sharp eye, a warm heart and sprawling ambitions, painted on the most splendid canvas of all' The Australian
 
'War, architecture, guilt, salvation, politics - this book has a little bit of it all... A fascinating look at Australia during the Vietnam War, the creation of the Sydney Opera House, and the ever-present battle between the violence of war and the beauty of art. Recommended' Historical Novel Society

'Kristina Olsson is such a graceful, wise and perceptive writer. The woman's massive heart is one big literary taproot feeding all of us answers about the Australian condition' Trent Dalton, bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe
ISBN:
9781471172656
9781471172656
Category:
War & combat fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
03-10-2019
Language:
English
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster, Limited
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Kristina Olsson

Kristina Olsson is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir won the 2014 Kibble Literary Award, the 2014 NSW Premier’s Literary Award, the 2013 Queensland Literary Award and the 2014 Western Australia Premier’s Literary Award.

It was shortlisted for the 2014 Stella Prize, the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the 2013 Australian Human Rights Commission Literature Award. Her other works include the biography, Kilroy Was Here, and novels In One Skin and The China Garden

This title is in stock with our overseas supplier and should be sent from our Sydney warehouse within 3 - 4 weeks of you placing an order.  

Once received into our warehouse we will despatch it to you with a Shipping Notification which includes online tracking.

Please check the estimated delivery times below for your region, for after your order is despatched from our warehouse:

ACT Metro 2 working days

NSW Metro 2 working days 

NSW Rural 2-3 working days

NSW Remote 2-5 working days

NT Metro 3-6 working days

NT Remote 4-10 working days

QLD Metro 2-4 working days

QLD Rural 2-5 working days

QLD Remote 2-7 working days

SA Metro 2-5 working days

SA Rural 3-6 working days

SA Remote 3-7 working days

TAS Metro 3-6 working days

TAS Rural 3-6 working days

VIC Metro 2-3 working days

VIC Rural 2-4 working days

VIC Remote 2-5 working days

WA Metro 3-6 working days

WA Rural 4-8 working days

WA Remote 4-12 working days

Reviews

Be the first to review Shell.