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'The subject is very topical. No More Boats tackles the fear of refugees head on, portraying the anxieties of a man who was once a migrant himself, brought to breaking point by the Tampa crisis, when the nation itself is thrown into a xenophobic frame of mind.
'It is 2001. 438 refugees sit in a boat called Tampa off the shoreline of Australia while the TV and radio scream out that the country is being flooded, inundated, overrun by migrants. Antonio Martone, once a migrant himself, has been forced to retire, his wife has moved in with the woman next door, his daughter runs off with strange men, his deadbeat son is hiding in the garden smoking marijuana. Amidst his growing paranoia, the ghost of his dead friend shows up and commands him to paint ‘No More Boats’ in giant letters across his front yard. The Prime Minister of Australia keeps telling Antonio that we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstance in which they come, but Antonio’s not sure he wants to think about all those things that led him to get on a boat and come to Australia in the first place. A man and a nation unravel together.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: For My Father who came here on a boat.
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Epigraph:
'For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share'
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia Fair'
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Braille.
Works about this Work
-
Di Cousens Reviews No More Boats by Felicity Castagna
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , February 2018;
— Review of No More Boats 2017 single work novel -
Your Guide to the Miles Franklin Shortlist : A Kaleidoscopic Portrait of a Diverse Nation
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 23 August 2018; The Guardian Australia , 23 August 2018;'The Miles Franklin award is famously for “a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases”. That’s a very broad palette, yet for most of the award’s existence — 1957 to the present — it has recognised a rather narrow field of “Australian life”.' (Introduction)
-
In The Estuary: Felicity Castagna’s No More Boats
2017
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2017;'In Felicity Castagna’s No More Boats, we are repeatedly reminded that the novel’s locale, Parramatta, marks the shifting aqueous site in Sydney’s Western suburban landscape where ‘saltwater meets fresh’. Historically, this is the place where Australia’s early colonial explorers, travelling up the Parramatta River from Sydney Cove in 1788, could take their boats no further. It is also one of numerous sites of resistance to European invasion by the Aboriginal warrior, Pemulwuy. In Castagna’s hands, this rich and multi-layered history of place is embodied in the topography of the Parramatta River and its intricate estuarine environment, creating a wonderfully nuanced metaphor.' (Introduction)
-
Felicity Castagna
Fiona Wright
(interviewer),
2017
single work
interview
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2017;'Six Degrees from the City is a podcast about writing in Western Sydney, hosted by the writer and critic Fiona Wright. In each episode features a writer based in or hailing from the western suburbs of Sydney, one of the most diverse – as well as most maligned – areas in Australia, and the site of some of our most interesting and challenging literature and conversations. This episode features the prize-winning novellist (and newly-turned playwright) Felicity Castagna.' (Introduction)
-
Felicity Castagna : No More Boats
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 24-30 June 2017; 'Although this novel opens with the disappearance of Harold Holt and ends with the collapse of the Twin Towers, most of it is focused on a brief, important moment that feels both distant from the present day and uncomfortably close. No More Boats tells the story of how Antonio Martone, the patriarch of a Parramatta family in late 2001, reaches an “existential crisis” that coincides with our own when we can’t decide what to do about the Tampa and its 438 human passengers. ' (Introduction)
-
Di Cousens Reviews No More Boats by Felicity Castagna
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: Plumwood Mountain [Online] , February 2018;
— Review of No More Boats 2017 single work novel -
'No More Boats' by Felicity Castagna
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 392 2017; 'No More Boats is Felicity Castagna’s newest work since Small Indiscretions (2011), a collection of short stories, and her award-winning Young Adult novel, The Incredible Here and Now (2013). This versatile writer depicts a plausible community set in Sydney’s inner west in 2001 and an ageing Italian migrant, Antonio Martone, whose life is falling apart and whose crises coincide with the Australian government’s obsession with secure borders. From the book’s first pages, we sense that Martone will soon reach a point of exasperation and will act out his frustrations with a gun. His actions will coincide with the political manipulation of the MV Tampa and the attack on the Twin Towers. What leads to that moment is the heart of this story.' (Introduction) -
Felicity Castagna : No More Boats
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 24-30 June 2017; 'Although this novel opens with the disappearance of Harold Holt and ends with the collapse of the Twin Towers, most of it is focused on a brief, important moment that feels both distant from the present day and uncomfortably close. No More Boats tells the story of how Antonio Martone, the patriarch of a Parramatta family in late 2001, reaches an “existential crisis” that coincides with our own when we can’t decide what to do about the Tampa and its 438 human passengers. ' (Introduction) -
Felicity Castagna
Fiona Wright
(interviewer),
2017
single work
interview
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2017;'Six Degrees from the City is a podcast about writing in Western Sydney, hosted by the writer and critic Fiona Wright. In each episode features a writer based in or hailing from the western suburbs of Sydney, one of the most diverse – as well as most maligned – areas in Australia, and the site of some of our most interesting and challenging literature and conversations. This episode features the prize-winning novellist (and newly-turned playwright) Felicity Castagna.' (Introduction)
-
In The Estuary: Felicity Castagna’s No More Boats
2017
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2017;'In Felicity Castagna’s No More Boats, we are repeatedly reminded that the novel’s locale, Parramatta, marks the shifting aqueous site in Sydney’s Western suburban landscape where ‘saltwater meets fresh’. Historically, this is the place where Australia’s early colonial explorers, travelling up the Parramatta River from Sydney Cove in 1788, could take their boats no further. It is also one of numerous sites of resistance to European invasion by the Aboriginal warrior, Pemulwuy. In Castagna’s hands, this rich and multi-layered history of place is embodied in the topography of the Parramatta River and its intricate estuarine environment, creating a wonderfully nuanced metaphor.' (Introduction)
-
Your Guide to the Miles Franklin Shortlist : A Kaleidoscopic Portrait of a Diverse Nation
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 23 August 2018; The Guardian Australia , 23 August 2018;'The Miles Franklin award is famously for “a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases”. That’s a very broad palette, yet for most of the award’s existence — 1957 to the present — it has recognised a rather narrow field of “Australian life”.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2018 highly commended Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Fiction
- 2018 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2018 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
- 2018 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Multicultural NSW
- Parramatta, Parramatta area, Sydney, New South Wales,
-
Calabria,
cItaly,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- Parramatta, Parramatta area, Sydney, New South Wales,
- ca. Aug 2001