ALL OUR SHIMMERING SKIES by Trent Dalton

 

Almost all reviews compare this second novel of Trent Dalton to the outstanding, charismatic, energetic and huge novel of Boy Swallows Universe. First novel - totally extraordinary story, characters, and writing, all held together by a thread, but what genius it delivers. Second novel - always a hard act to follow. How many authors do we have to wait years, decades even before they fearfully give us a second novel? Not Trent Dalton!!! Less than two years later this second glorious piece of writing from an ex journalist who will no doubt never write for a newspaper again. 

Boy is probably going to be my favourite read of 2020. So I have to say before going further that, for me, and after looking at a number of other reviews, this did not take my breath away in the same way, did not seem to have the same tightness of narration and dedicated sense of purpose, and possibly had too much going on it. But, the same sense of joy, hopefulness, adoration of young Molly as we felt for Eli, and the wonder of life and adults, both good and bad, seen through a child's eyes, their determination in the face of so many obstacles is just amazing. Exactly the sort of thing we need to be reading, enjoying and learning from in the world we are currently living in. If I had read this first, I would be 5*-ing it, but I didn't. What I do want to do though, is reread Boy just to get that magic.

Molly Hook is a girl version of Eli with just as much trauma, grief and complications to deal with as Eli did. She is 12, lives with her father and uncle - both serious wastes of space, reminding me of Eli's comment in Boy that most of the problems families have, and perpetuating them onto the next generation, is due to useless fathers. Molly's family is 100% this. She is known as the gravedigger girl, because she lives at the cemetery where, with her appalling father and uncle she digs graves. Her mother died of an illness when Molly was 6 or 7, and with no one to grieve with or parent her, she has developed her own internal coping mechanisms that can only come out of a child's brain and imagination. Life is tough for Molly. She has grown up believing her family has been cursed by an Aboriginal gold prospector, Longcoat Bob, following her grandfather supposedly stealing a lot of gold from him. Her mission in life is to find a way to lift this curse, so that her family, and herself can be happy again. Her mother always told her to keep looking up, looking to the sky, all the good things come from the sky, and so that is what Molly does - the sky is her inspiration and her saviour. 

Then WWII intervenes. Set in Darwin, I had no idea that this town as it was in 1942, was badly bombed by the Japanese, its strategic location seen as essential for the Japanese to disable. Along with dozens of others, Molly and her uncle's girlfriend Greta - also with her own tragic life story - flee Darwin into the Northern Territory bush, with nowhere to go but find Longcoat Bob. Along the way they pick up Yukio, a young Japanese pilot who deserted the cause of bombing Darwin to bits, deciding to take his chances by crash-landing his plane in the middle of nowhere. 

Naturally various adventures ensue, numerous near misses occur, there is magic and illusion, dreams, probably hallucinations due to dehydration and hunger, and as we go along a few other things. Things do fall from the sky, incongruous and odd, but nevertheless tell Molly that she is succeeding, and so she keeps going, even though it seems all the odds are stacking up against her, Greta and Yukio. By crikey that girl has some grit. 

It is magnificent, wonderful, expansive, frightening and amazing, even if it is slightly in the shadow of number 1, do not let that stop you from taking this on.