The Red Shoe
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- 9,49 €
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- 9,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
A beautifully written story about an ordinary family living in the Northern Beaches of Sydney during the 1950s, against the backdrop of such world events as the Cold War and the threat of the H bomb, the unrest in Indo China and the high profile case of KGB defector Vladimir Petrov. The story is chronicled by six-year-old Matilda, who sees but doesn't understand what is going on around her. Her sister Frances is troubled by the death of a friend, their sister Elizabeth, who decides she will not to return to school, becomes obsessed with reading the newspaper. Their father is often away and when he is, Uncle Paul seems always to be around. Mysterious people move in next door and one day, when she is at the pictures, Matilda notices that the Russian man in the newsreel looks just like one of the new neighbours. A novel that works on many levels, this is nothing short of Ursula Dubosarsky writing at the height of her powers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Australian author Dubosarsky (Theodora's Gift) eloquently conveys the observations and memories of three sisters the youngest, Matilda; middle-child Frances, 11; and 15-year-old Elizabeth living in uncertain times. Growing up "in a house far away... deep in the bush," there are many things six-year-old Matilda doesn't understand: Why is her father (a merchant marine) away so much of the time? Are the mysterious men who moved into the house next door really spies? Why doesn't her older sister, who suffered a "nervous breakdown," ever want to go back to school? Answers to these and other questions quietly emerge as pieces of a complex puzzle that the author artfully fits together. The honest, poignant third-person narrative shifts among the sisters, but focuses mostly on Matilda's point of view, and reveals unsettling details about the family's history. Most specifically, the book brings to light the instability of Matilda's father, a WWII veteran, and the relationship between her mother and musician uncle. Newspaper clippings from the Sydney Morning Herald that appear intermittently between chapters give additional insight into an era characterized by suspicion, tragedy and confusion. Dubosarsky proves masterful in conjuring and connecting images. The vision of a pair of red shoes, first mentioned in a fairy tale read to Matilda by Frances (which opens the novel), gains symbolic significance as the story unfolds and family secrets come to light. Ages 12-up.
