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Ramona Koval Ramona Koval i(A17887 works by) (a.k.a. Rivka Hill)
Born: Established: 1954 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Jewish
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Works By

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1 y separately published work icon Transcript of Radio 3LO Interview of Mark O'Connor, The Museum of Victoria's Thomas Ramsay Science and Humanities Scholar Ramona Koval (interviewer), (Manuscript version)x400925 Z449715 single work interview
1 4 y separately published work icon A Letter to Layla : Travels to Our Deep Past and Near Future Ramona Koval , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2020 20326372 2020 single work prose

'How might the origins of our species inform the way we think about our planet? At a point of unparalleled crisis, can human ingenuity save us from ourselves?

'Much-loved writer Ramona Koval travels the globe in a quest for answers, and encounters the unexpected. She talks to an eminent paleo-archaeologist over a two-million-year-old skull in the Republic of Georgia, meets the next generation of robots in Berlin, attends a festival against death in California and explores an ice-age cave in southern France, speaking with the world’s leading authority on cave art.

'Between these and other adventures she returns to her ever-engaging granddaughter Layla, whose development in infancy spurs Koval to find out what makes us human, what separates us from the other apes.

'Full of revealing exchanges with scientists and writers whose knowledge of the past and visions for the future could hold the key to our next evolution, A Letter to Layla will surprise and delight in equal measure.' (Publication summary)

1 Goodbye and Good Luck Ramona Koval , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Split : True Stories of Leaving, Loss and New Beginnings 2019;
1 Rewinding the Biological Clock Ramona Koval , 2015 extract autobiography (Bloodhound : Searching for My Father)
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18-19 April 2015; (p. 22)
1 7 y separately published work icon Bloodhound : Searching for My Father Ramona Koval , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2015 8354920 2015 single work autobiography

'I looked up the name in the phone book and rang the number. I tried to imagine the conversation that might ensue. 'Hello? I was wondering if you're the man who was recently at an auction and asked a woman named Mary if I was married and had children and was happy - and if you are, are you my real father?

'Ramona Koval's parents were Holocaust survivors who fled their homeland and settled in Melbourne. As a child, Koval learned little about their lives - only snippets from traumatic tales of destruction and escape. But she always suspected that the man who raised her was not her biological father.

'One day in the 1990s, long after her mother's death, she decides she must know the truth. A phone call leads to a photograph in the mail, then tea with strangers. Before long Koval is interrogating a nursing-home patient, meeting a horse whisperer in tropical Queensland, journeying to rural Poland, learning other languages and dealing with Kafkaesque bureaucracy, all in the hope of finding an answer.

'A quest for identity recounted with Koval's customary humour, Bloodhound takes hold of the reader and never lets go. It is a moving story of the terrible cost of war and of family secrets. ' (Publication summary)

1 Australian Lit. Ramona Koval , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: World Literature Today , 1 May vol. 88 no. 3/4 2014; (p. 6)

— Review of The Watch Tower Elizabeth Harrower , 1966 single work novel ; Romulus, My Father Raimond Gaita , 1998 single work biography ; Benang : From the Heart Kim Scott , 1999 single work novel ; The Narrow Road to the Deep North Richard Flanagan , 2013 single work novel
1 Introduction Ramona Koval , 2014 essay
— Appears in: The Catherine Wheel 2014;
1 Books of the Year Stephen Romei , Graeme Blundell , James Bradley , Geraldine Brooks , Gabrielle Carey , Peter Carey , Stella Clarke , Miriam Cosic , Peter Craven , Tegan Bennett Daylight , Michelle De Kretser , Delia Falconer , Tim Flannery , David Free , Peter Goldsworthy , Andy Griffiths , Gideon Haigh , Helen Garner , Sonya Hartnett , Ashley Hay , Evelyn Juers , Thomas Keneally , Richard King , Ramona Koval , David Malouf , Alex Miller , Louis Nowra , Peter Pierce , Felicity Plunkett , Nicolas Rothwell , Jaya Savige , Kirsten Tranter , Geordie Williamson , Tim Winton , Ed Wright , Fiona Wright , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 December 2013; (p. 14-18)
1 y separately published work icon Ramona Koval Ramona Koval , 2012 Z1919880 2012 website This website provides reviews, interviews and writings.
1 Books of the Year Graeme Blundell , Helen Garner , Jaya Savige , Anna Funder , Delia Falconer , Peter Craven , J. M. Coetzee , Stella Clarke , Les Carlyon , James Bradley , Jane Gleeson-White , Susan Johnson , James Ley , Ashley Hay , Leigh Sales , Alex Miller , Ramona Koval , Evelyn Juers , Peter Pierce , Nicolas Rothwell , Colm Toibin , Kirsten Tranter , Brenda Walker , Maria Tumarkin , Geordie Williamson , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 22-23 December 2012; (p. 14-15)
Leading writers and critics share their best reads for 2012.
1 3 y separately published work icon The Best Australian Essays 2012 Ramona Koval (editor), Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2012 Z1903122 2012 anthology essay prose criticism 'Collects the year's finest works of non-fiction. These essays roam widely, capturing the preoccupations and events of the previous year. Showcasing our finest writers on a range of topics both public and personal, The Best Australian Essays is an indispensable record of the year that was.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 7 y separately published work icon By the Book : A Reader's Guide to Life Ramona Koval , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2012 Z1894125 2012 single work prose

'By the Book is Ramona Koval's love letter to books and writing.

'What is it about reading that we love so much? Why do books make our lives so much richer?

'Ramona's Koval's By the Book is about reading and living, and about the authors that have written themselves into her life: from Oliver Sacks to Oscar Wilde, Christina Stead to Grace Paley. It is about learning to read (and asking her mother to buy her a copy of the Kama Sutra), about love and science (and her childhood ambition to be Marie Curie), about arctic exploration (and her ruminations on what part of a husky she would eat if she had to), about poetry and travel and falling in love.

'In our book-devouring nation, this is a book for every avid reader and every avid listener who has been spellbound by Ramona's interviews over the years.'

1 Truth, Lies and Family Secrets Ramona Koval , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 May 2012; (p. 37)

— Review of The House of Fiction : Leonard, Susan and Elizabeth Jolley : A Memoir Susan Swingler , 2012 single work autobiography
1 Rewind to Ms Garner's Angels Ramona Koval , 2012 extract criticism (Cosmo Cosmolino : Introduction)
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 April 2012; (p. 39)
1 Cosmo Cosmolino : Introduction Ramona Koval , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cosmo Cosmolino 2012;
1 5 y separately published work icon The Best Australian Essays 2011 Ramona Koval (editor), Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2011 Z1812768 2011 anthology essay extract criticism 'In The Best Australian Essays 2011, Ramona Koval compiles a diverse and invigorating collection of the year's best non-fiction. Describing world-altering events as well as moments of introspection, and ranging from the provocative to the life affirming, these illuminating essays are certain to stimulate conversation for years to come.' (From the publisher's website.)
1 I Am What I Am : Ramona Koval Ramona Koval , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Sunday Life , 19 September 2010; (p. 9)
1 Kate Grenville : The Lieutenant Ramona Koval (interviewer), 2009 single work interview
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , January 2009;
1 Between Cultures Ramona Koval (interviewer), 2009 extract interview (Kate Grenville : The Lieutenant)
— Appears in: Biblio : A Review of Books , November-December vol. 14 no. 11 & 12 2009; (p. 34-36)
1 In Praise of the Common Reader Ramona Koval , 2007 single work essay
— Appears in: Overland , Summer no. 189 2007; (p. 3-10)
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