AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'I know that two men are coming up the mountain, at this moment, including the boy from far away. I wonder what my grandson's face will look like.This is a boy in the skin of a man.I know the boy is innocent, that it's his family soul which is guilty.
'An old woman sits waiting in a village that clings to a Turkish mountainside, where the women weave rugs, make tea and keep blood secrets that span generations. Berna can see what others cannot, so her secrets are deeper and darker than most. It is time for her to tell her story, even though the man for whom her words are meant won't hear them. It is time for the truth to be told.
Nearly a hundred years before, her father James had come to the village on the back of a donkey, gravely ill, rescued from the abandoned trenches of Gallipoli by a Turkish boy whose life he had earlier spared. James made his life there, never returning to Australia and never realising that his own father was indeed the near-mythical bushranger that the gossips had hinted at when he'd been a boy growing up in Beechworth.
'Now, as Berna waits, a young man from Melbourne approaches to visit his parents' village, against the vehement opposition of his cursed, tight-lipped grandfather. What is the astonishing story behind the dark deeds that connect the two men, unknown to each other and living almost a century apart?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
-
Dedication: To Anthony, thank you for the time and the space.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Review : The Secret Son
2016
single work
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 378 2016; (p. 47)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel -
Review : The Improbability of Love
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , October 2015; (p. 40)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel -
Turkish Horizons
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 59 no. 12 2015; (p. 82-84)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel -
Jenny Ackland : The Secret Son
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2015;
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel -
Skeins of the Past Shroud Migratory Journeys
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3-4 October 2015; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel ; The Waiting Room 2015 single work novel
-
Skeins of the Past Shroud Migratory Journeys
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3-4 October 2015; (p. 20-21)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel ; The Waiting Room 2015 single work novel -
Jenny Ackland : The Secret Son
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2015;
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel -
Turkish Horizons
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 59 no. 12 2015; (p. 82-84)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel -
Review : The Improbability of Love
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: Good Reading , October 2015; (p. 40)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel -
Review : The Secret Son
2016
single work
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 378 2016; (p. 47)
— Review of The Secret Son 2015 single work novel
Awards
-
cTurkey,cMiddle East, Asia,