Spirit House
By Mark Dapin
3/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 ONDAATJE PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
David is thirteen and confused. His mum has left with her lover and dumped David on his grandparents. David's grandfather, Jimmy, is seventy. He spends his days at the social club grumbling with his three best friends, all of them Jewish-Australian survivors of the enforced labour camps of the WWII Thai-Burma Railroad. But behind their playful backbiting and irresistible wit, Jimmy and his friends are haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, and the only person Jimmy can confide in is a thirteen-year-old from a different world...
Mark Dapin
Mark Dapin is an acclaimed journalist, author, screenwriter and historian. He is the author of the novels King of the Cross, Spirit House and R&R. King of the Cross won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and Spirit House was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year and the Royal Society for Literature’s Ondaatje Prize. R&R was shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award. Mark holds a doctorate in military history. His history book The Nashos’ War was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and won the NIB People’s Choice Award and an Alex Buzo Shortlist Award. He has also written three books of true crime: Public Enemies (shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award), Prison Break and Carnage. He worked as consultant producer on Network Seven TV show Armed and Dangerous, and as screenwriter on Stan’s Wolf Creek 2. His website is at markdapin.com.
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Reviews for Spirit House
23 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I almost didn't finish this book, but around Chapter 9 I started to get involved in the plot. I am not a fan of the writing, for the most part. It reminds me of the "Guy Noir" skit on "Prairie Home Companion". Only that is supposed to be funny, of course. Nevertheless, I did finish the book and liked it a little better towards the end.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I am a sucker for hardboiled stories set in exotic (at least, exotic to me) locales. Almost everything in Spirit House worked for me, except the friendship with the cop — but, hey, why dwell on that minor point when there are so many things right with the book? I loved the dialogue, the action was told with a dreamy ambiguousness that suited the slightly surreal setting, the Thai characters were a welcome change from the usual crime novel bad guys. I will definitely be tracking down more of Moore's books.