"In the morning Greg traces the scars with his fingers.
'Those are hell good,' he says with real admiration in his voice.
'How'd you get 'em?'
I turn and look at him and feel that countdown, how it could go either way. 'Bad relationship.' Greg shifts up the bed and puts his hand on the back of my neck, like there's something I deserve comfort for. I can let myself believe it just for now that I am some kind of victim. He lifts my hair up and I can feel him looking. He kisses the top bone of my spine and says, 'I'll kill him.' And there it is, the lie, and it becomes real, another contract signed, stamped and dated."
From 'After the Hedland', an excerpt from All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld (published 2013; the excerpt in GRANTA, Issue 123, 2013)
Evie Wyld *1980
Another author from the EdBookFest 2013: Evie Wyld presenting her second novel All the Birds, Singing. And another of the GRANTA 'Best of Young British Novelists' 2013 presented on this blog: May '13: Zadie Smith, June '12: Kamila Shamsie and May '12: Tahmima Anam.
Evie's first novel After the Fire, A Still Small Voice was published in 2009 and received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Betty Trask Award while shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. On top of all, she was listed for the Culture Show's Best New British Novelist in 2011. A strong beginning and a very impressive one as well.
In contrast, her stories, and especially her characters, are certainly not to entertain the reader. They are broken lives with broken backgrounds. When I read the excerpt in GRANTA, I was puzzled by the protagonist: is it a male or female character, the way she is set in this male dominated world of sheep shearers? Additionally, Jake is not particularly a female name. In an interview with Culture Street Evie even claims: "I wanted a person as a protagonist, rather than a romantic lead" which set me thinking about other female characters.
Interesting to see someone that young focusing on disturbing her readership. But Evie, obviously, loves to irritate: she revealed in an interview with GRANTA magazine in 2008 that she grew up in Peckham Rye, UK, and not as previously boasted in Australia, well having dual nationality. As she is frequently going back and forth between the two countries "the feeling of homesickness is what drives a lot of my writing, and so far I haven't quite worked out which country is home" (GRANTA, 11 May 2008). Whereas she dreamt of becoming a painter she realized that she was stronger in storytelling. So she turned to Creative Writing and obtained her B.A. from Bath Spa University and an M.A. from Goldsmiths, at the University of London.
Another quote: "I am interested in the idea that it's not the person who is brute but that the things that happen are brutish" (GRANTA, 2008). The brutishness of wartimes which is the background of Evie's first novel is skilfully summarized by Elizabeth O'Reilly on the BC website: "In Wyld's poignant and masterful portrait of several generations of one family, there is no individual person who can be pinpointed as the source of blame, for each one is caught up in a complex web of dysfunctional family relationships exacerbated by the devastating effects of war and bereavement. The history of war in the family goes back generations: Leon's parents, Roman and Maureen, are European immigrants who escaped the Nazi holocaust and emigrated to Australia. [...] As Maureen fears, Roman never recovers from the psychological effects of war, and the damage that is subsequently inflicted on Leon [...] is in turn passed on to the next generation, Frank." (British Council). And here we go again: though Evie is from another time and background, the devastating effects of WWII echo on (see my previous blog).
Do read her novels because Evie is considered a very gifted writer: "Her pacing is impeccable and the trickle of information she marshals lends tension and compassion to Jake's troubled, solitary existence. How did she get those scars on her back? What could have happened in Australia that makes standing in a field, the wind whipping sheep dung in her face, preferable?" (Tim Lewis in The Observer). Certainly, a rewarding new experience of a new way of seeing the world that surrounds us. I will keep trace of this notable young author and you informed!
Evie's first novel After the Fire, A Still Small Voice was published in 2009 and received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Betty Trask Award while shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. On top of all, she was listed for the Culture Show's Best New British Novelist in 2011. A strong beginning and a very impressive one as well.
In contrast, her stories, and especially her characters, are certainly not to entertain the reader. They are broken lives with broken backgrounds. When I read the excerpt in GRANTA, I was puzzled by the protagonist: is it a male or female character, the way she is set in this male dominated world of sheep shearers? Additionally, Jake is not particularly a female name. In an interview with Culture Street Evie even claims: "I wanted a person as a protagonist, rather than a romantic lead" which set me thinking about other female characters.
Interesting to see someone that young focusing on disturbing her readership. But Evie, obviously, loves to irritate: she revealed in an interview with GRANTA magazine in 2008 that she grew up in Peckham Rye, UK, and not as previously boasted in Australia, well having dual nationality. As she is frequently going back and forth between the two countries "the feeling of homesickness is what drives a lot of my writing, and so far I haven't quite worked out which country is home" (GRANTA, 11 May 2008). Whereas she dreamt of becoming a painter she realized that she was stronger in storytelling. So she turned to Creative Writing and obtained her B.A. from Bath Spa University and an M.A. from Goldsmiths, at the University of London.
Another quote: "I am interested in the idea that it's not the person who is brute but that the things that happen are brutish" (GRANTA, 2008). The brutishness of wartimes which is the background of Evie's first novel is skilfully summarized by Elizabeth O'Reilly on the BC website: "In Wyld's poignant and masterful portrait of several generations of one family, there is no individual person who can be pinpointed as the source of blame, for each one is caught up in a complex web of dysfunctional family relationships exacerbated by the devastating effects of war and bereavement. The history of war in the family goes back generations: Leon's parents, Roman and Maureen, are European immigrants who escaped the Nazi holocaust and emigrated to Australia. [...] As Maureen fears, Roman never recovers from the psychological effects of war, and the damage that is subsequently inflicted on Leon [...] is in turn passed on to the next generation, Frank." (British Council). And here we go again: though Evie is from another time and background, the devastating effects of WWII echo on (see my previous blog).
Do read her novels because Evie is considered a very gifted writer: "Her pacing is impeccable and the trickle of information she marshals lends tension and compassion to Jake's troubled, solitary existence. How did she get those scars on her back? What could have happened in Australia that makes standing in a field, the wind whipping sheep dung in her face, preferable?" (Tim Lewis in The Observer). Certainly, a rewarding new experience of a new way of seeing the world that surrounds us. I will keep trace of this notable young author and you informed!
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