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Carmel Bird ... “Connection with home is the genesis of hope.” Image: Samantha Everton.
POSTED: 23 JUNE 2010
Bringing the images back home*
Carmel Bird (ed), Home Truth
Fouth Estate | 304pp paperback | $29.99 | To be published July 2010
“Connection with home is the genesis of hope,” says Carmel Bird in her thoughtful introduction to Home Truth, a heartfelt collection of stories and essays from 10 Australian writers for whom the concept of home almost always sparks an examination of self and identity.
It was 1997 when the Government Report on the Stolen Generations, entitled Bringing them Home, was first published, and Bird has been contemplating the concept of “home” ever since.
“I have confined this selection particularly to writers who work with images. I believe it is images that can give writers the power to carry their understanding of the word ‘home’ into the hearts and minds of readers,” said Bird.
From Peter Goldsworthy’s recollections of towns in different parts of Australia to Andrea Goldsmith’s exploration of the home found — and lost — in another person, to Marion Halligan’s recollections of homes in both hemispheres, to the lie discovered by Matthew Condon in the accepted history of his home town Brisbane, these stories evoke the myriad ways in which home can nurture, be full of quiet pain, be found in a fleeting moment or provide an eternal anchor.
Other contributors are: Gabrielle Lord, Rosaleen Love, Cassandra Pybus, Ian Britain, Michael McGirr and Carmel Bird herself.
Carmel Bird’s most recent novel is Child of the Twilight. Three of her novels have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. She is also a leading author of short stories, including her collection The Essential Bird, and of the non-fiction guide to memoir writing, Writing the Story of Your Life. She edited The Stolen Children, Their Stories which is a major text on the subject of indigenous Australia, and also The Penguin Century of Australian Stories.
*NOTE: Based on media release issued by HarperCollins.
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