My Father's Moon Elizabeth Jolley 1989

Dustjacket synopsis:
'The moon belongs to my father. He has always said it was his. If I was over there he would know without my telling him. It is only such a small thing I have to tell. Perhaps it is the small things which are the hardest to tell. They are the things which make all the difference.'

"Vera is young awkward and naive.

"As schoolgirl, she has her sheltered idealism, her Quaker boarding-school education, and the warm, enveloping security of her parents.

"As student nurse at the large military hospital during the war, her transition to womanhood - and victim to more experienced players - is rapid, painful and disastrous.

"And as unmarried mother she flees, from the nagging tension of her home and the gossipy stares of the hospital, to Fairfields, a place of poetry, music and of people with interesting lives and ideas. Quickly she learns it otherwise.

"Yet, for Vera, always there is the moon - her companion, comforter, and the unbreakable link with her father...

"My Father's Moon is Elizabeth Jolley's finest novel, full of alarming perceptions, black irony, and tenderness. It is a remarkable achievement."

Quotes:
"the novel at the heart of all her work" - Helen Daniel, The Age

First Paragraph:

"Why can't the father, the father of your - what I mean is why can't he do something?"

"I've told you, he's dead."

"How can you say that, he was on the phone last night. I could tell by your voice, that's who it was."

"He's dead. I've told you."

At last the day has come when I must leave for Fairfields. It is all arranged. I have been there once already and know it to be a place of grated raw vegetables and children with restless eyes. It is also a place of poetry and music and of people with interesting lives and ideas.

From the Penguin paperback edition, 1989.

Notes:
This novel won the The Age Book of the Year Award in 1989.

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Last modified: June 28, 2005.