ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Excellent news!  Today a beaut box of books arrived from book distributors Dennis Jones and Associates to support Indigenous Literature Week 2014 here at ANZ LitLovers.  They have also been very generous in donating a most interesting book as a Giveaway.  It isn’t a book by an indigenous author – but it will be of interest to anyone keen to know more about life in remote indigenous communities.

The book is Raft, by Howard Goldenberg, a name that is probably familiar to you if you are also a reader of the Whispering Gums blog.  Sue recently reviewed Goldenberg’s  novel Carrots and Jaffas, and took the opportunity to lead a discussion about the issue of non-indigenous authors writing about indigenous people.   Goldenberg has served in many indigenous communities as a relieving doctor over the past decade, and this is what the blurbers say about the book:

Raft is a delicious, warm and endearing look at a side of Australian life known personally to very few of us.  Through his measured and beautifully constructed words, we are privileged to  glimpse an ancient land and its people through the eyes of a perceptive and sophisticated, but essentially generous man.  This is a book which should be in every home, and every parent’s gift to their children.  (Alan Gold)

Goldenberg’s stories traverse a path between close and distant landscapes toward a place that is familiar and strange, ancient and modern.  Each story is a gem that radiates insight, humility, shame, and hope.  (Mark Baker)

Goldenberg is both observer and physician, writer and participant, tenacious in his quest for understanding and lived experience. a seeker with a passionate belief in the power of story. (Arnold Zable).

Be in it to win it: Anyone with an Australian address is eligible.  Please indicate your interest in the Comments box below and I’ll select a winner using a random generator by the end of next week i.e. Monday June 30th.

All entries from Australian residents will be eligible but it is a condition of entry that if you are the winner, you must contact me with a postal address  by the deadline that will be specified in the blog post that announces the winner.   (I’ll redraw if this deadline isn’t met).

You can buy Raft from Fishpond, from Hybrid Online and good book stores.   Many thanks to Dennis Jones and Associates!

PS I’ll be reviewing the autobiography of Yami Lester and a fabulous book about the life and art of Wenten Rubuntja soon, and I’ll do the children’s books on my LisaHillSchoolStuff blog: they are three titles in the First Discovery series, and a gorgeous picture book called Tracker Tjungingji.