Blinding the Ghost's Eye

Ottavio, a former refugee from Sudan’s brutal civil war, lives in

Sydney, Australia; a place rich with opportunity and frustration. He

has a degree in engineering but works in a meat factory. He strives

to be responsible in the ways expected by his community—to look

after his brothers, his cousins, and to get married. Yet, Ottavio

feels like he is failing. Barely sleeping at night, he is unable to

forget what the war took from him, what he left behind.

To prove to himself that he has settled in his adopted country, he

volunteers to help other migrants learn English. In class, he meets

Alice, an Australian-born kawauja. She has a secure existence, a

mundane job, and a need to find more meaning in her own life.

But when tragedy strikes them both, they change in ways they

could never have imagined.

Blinding the Ghost’s Eye is a story of belonging—to countries and

families—a story of subjugation, of how we find comfort, and of

promises we cannot hope to keep.