My Father's Moon

My Father's Moon
Author	Elizabeth Jolley
Language	English
Genre	Fiction
Publisher	Viking
Publication date	1989
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print
Pages	171 pp.
ISBN	0140111255
Preceded by	The Sugar Mother
Followed by	Cabin Fever

My Father's Moon (1989) is a novel by Australian writer Elizabeth Jolley. It was originally published by Viking in Australia in 1989.^[1]

The novel was the first in the author's Vera Wright trilogy, preceding Cabin Fever (1990) and The Georges' Wife (1993).

Synopsis

During World War II Vera Wright is a young nurse training in a London hospital.

Critical reception

Reviewing the novel for The Canberra Times Marina Eldridge wrote that it "is centred firmly in Britain, Britain of half a century ago in which young Vera Wright comes to London to train as a nurse. Vera's rite of passage is lovingly portrayed as, with great imagination and control, the novel dips and sweeps between the present and the past, one incident recalling another, much as memory functions...Jolley's fans will recognise with pleasure the eccentric incidents and the array of quirky characters.."^[2]

Writing about which Australian novel a reader should pick next for The Guardian, Carrie Tiffany chose this book and stated: "It is proof of a fine novel when its characters enter your spirit as you are reading and take up residence there. The experience is akin to falling in love. You are vividly enveloped by thoughts of another. They are alive inside you, perceiving the world with you, breath by breath. It is the most intimate of feelings. Film can't achieve this, or theatre, or visual art; perhaps music gets closest. It's only the novel that can show you the grain of another's soul...Read Elizabeth Jolley's My Father's Moon. You may want to go on and read the Vera Wright trilogy. You may want to go on and read and re-read Elizabeth Jolley, as I do, and as I will continue to do."^[3]

Publication history

After its original publication in 1989 in Australia by publisher Viking^[4] the novel was later reprinted as follows:

Harper and Row, USA, 1989^[5]
Penguin, Australia, 2008^[6]

The novel was also translated into German in 1994.^[1]

Awards

The novel won the Age Book of the Year Award for Fiction (or Imaginative Writing) in 1989.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b "Austlit — My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley (Viking) 1989". Austlit. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
^ ""Jolley good rites of passage"". The Canberra Times, 29 April 1989, p22. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
^ ""The Australian book to read next: My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley"". The Guardian, 10 July 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
^ "My Father's Moon (Viking 1989)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
^ "My Father's Moon (Harper and Row)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
^ "My Father's Moon (Penguin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
^ "Austlit — Age Book of the Year — Imaginative Writing Prize 1989". Austlit. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

[Austlit-1] "Austlit — My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley (Viking) 1989". Austlit. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

[CT-2] ""Jolley good rites of passage"". The Canberra Times, 29 April 1989, p22. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

[AG-3] ""The Australian book to read next: My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley"". The Guardian, 10 July 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

[NLA1-4] "My Father's Moon (Viking 1989)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

[NLA2-5] "My Father's Moon (Harper and Row)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

[NLA3-6] "My Father's Moon (Penguin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

[Age89F-7] "Austlit — Age Book of the Year — Imaginative Writing Prize 1989". Austlit. Retrieved 27 November 2023.

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