Saturday 30 April 2011

The Time It Rained Fish (Esperance Press, 1999)

The first Ellen is born near Skibbereen in Ireland during the time of the Great Hunger.  The second Ellen is born in the arid suburbs of Sydney, Australia.  Both women fulfil a destiny shaped by their family curse, the Bauravilla curse, and their failure to find what they are seeking- each other.

The Time It Rained Fish is the story of two soul-sisters separeted by over a century of time and half the world.  But linking them are three generations of Irish-Australian women.  The culmination occurs in Tasmania where the landscape is alien to both and yet permits the impossible- their meeting.

1 comment:

  1. Time It Rained Fish

    A beautifully written and haunting story of two soul sisters. The first Ellen is a Carmelite nun, born near Skibbereen in Ireland during the Great Hunger. The second Ellen is a New Age convert of the 1970's and 1980's, born in the arid western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. The emotional centre of gravity is their Irish Catholicism; and the book moves back and forth between eras that link their personal lives with the issues of land rights and Republicanism in Ireland and Australia. Each section begins with a stanza of Irish poetry.

    -Whitpoulls

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