After the Fire, A Still Small Voice
Encyclopedia
After the Fire, A Still Small Voice is the debut novel by author Evie Wyld
published in August 2009 by Jonathan Cape
in the UK and Pantheon Books
in the US. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
and a Betty Trask Award
. and was also shortlisted for both the Orange Award for New Writers and International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
. The book's title is taken from 1 Kings 19:12.
on the East Coast of Australia
and concerns two men from different generations, as described in the blurb
on the back cover of the 2010 Vintage
edition :-
Evie Wyld
Evie Wyld is the author of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winning novel After the Fire, A Still Small Voice. In 2010 she was listed by The Daily Telegraph as one of the twenty best British authors under the age of 40....
published in August 2009 by Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
in the UK and Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books
Pantheon Books is an American imprint with editorial independence that is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.The current editor-in-chief at Pantheon Books is Dan Frank.-Overview:...
in the US. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdom...
and a Betty Trask Award
Betty Trask Award
The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. The awards were established in 1984 by the Society of Authors, at the bequest of the late Betty Trask, a reclusive author of over thirty romance novels...
. and was also shortlisted for both the Orange Award for New Writers and International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
. The book's title is taken from 1 Kings 19:12.
Plot introduction
The story is set in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
on the East Coast of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and concerns two men from different generations, as described in the blurb
Blurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
on the back cover of the 2010 Vintage
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
edition :-
- Frank is trying to escape his troubled past by running away to his family’s beach shack. As he struggles to make friends with his neighbours and their precocious young daughter Sal, he discovers the community has fresh wounds of its own. A girl is missing, and when Sal too disappears, suspicion falls on Frank.
- Decades earlier, Leon tries to hold together his family’s cake shop as their suburban life crumbles in the aftermath of the Korean WarKorean WarThe Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. When war breaks out again, Leon must go from sculpting sugar figurines to killing young men as a conscript in the Vietnam WarVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Reception
- Lee RourkeLee RourkeLee Rourke is a writer and editor. He is the author of the short story collection Everyday and the novel The Canal published by Melville House Publishing...
in The Independent on Sunday rounds off his review saying "Wyld's writing is assured enough to elongate metaphor and symbolism, creating a novel both taut and otherworldly. This adroit examination of loss, lostness and trauma is the beginning of great things". - The ObserverThe ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
has the following praise from Francesca Segal, "The landscape of Australia's east coast looms large in the book, wild and sinister, filled with light and tragedy. This is a sad and lovely novel from a talented new writer". - In The Daily Mail, Stephanie Cross writes "With awesome skill and whiplash wit, Evie Wyld knits together past and present, with tension building all the time. In Peter Carey and Tim Winton, Australia has produced two of the finest storytellers working today. On this evidence, Wyld can match them both".
External links
- In Conversation with Evie Wyld, author of After the Fire, A Still Small Voice
- After the award, a humble happy Evie...
- Wyldfire: An interview with Evie Wyld
- Emma Gibson interviews talented new writer Evie Wyld
- Evie Wyld on After The Fire, A Still Small Voice from youtubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- Evie Wyld talks about After The Fire, A Still Small Voice from youtube
- Evie Wyld discusses her first novel, After the Fire