Skip to main content

When the Night Comes by Favel Parrett: book review

 


When the Night Comes by Favel Parrett (2014) is set in Tasmania, an island state of Australia, in the capital city Hobart, in the 1980s.

Isla and her brother were going to a new place with their mother – an island in the middle of the sea: Tasmania. Leaving the mainland of Australia was supposed to make their lives better, but their mother’s perpetual sadness pervaded their everyday lives. 

Their mother found a house to rent – a dark, shadowy house in a cold, damp coastal city – a house without an inside toilet; the toilet was an outhouse in the back garden. 

Isla sees a red ship and her eyes light up. She didn’t expect a sailor from the ship to befriend her mother, but she is glad he did. She loves the stories of his Danish home, his life on the seas, and his expeditions to Antarctica. It sounded so adventurous and exotic and, well, so different from her own mundane, sad, lonely existence in a country at the bottom of the world. ‘All the things he told me, I wanted more than anything.’

‘It was something special to go on Bo Anker Johansen’s ship, the Nella Dan.’ On the ship, she was in another world. 

Then their mother bought a house with her divorce settlement, and they moved in, wtih a new cat called Molly. Surely, life will get better now, thinks Isla. But Bo, the sailor, left on another voyage to Antarctica. His ship was stuck in ice for seven weeks. Soon afer his return, he set sail again. That was his life; his life on the seas. Isla ponders, ‘Why would he ever want to come back here?’ 

This is a hauntingly, poetic, evocative fictional tale – except for the true red ship, the Nella Dan. Dan for Danish. It is about kindness, and the friendship between a young girl and a modern-day Danish Viking. It is not only about loneliness and togetherness, but also of remote and lonely days, locations, and landscapes. Above, all, it is a beautiful and gentle story. 









 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite

Rainy Day Healing

Martinasblogs  

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Paris blogs

Animal Website

Flower Website

Global Gentlemanliness

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 


MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more

Shindi: the Georgian Cornelian cherry

The Cornelian cherry – shindi in Georgian – is a fruit with medicinal and decorative properties. It was grown from ancient times, according to the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). It is also commonly called the European cornel. It is native to southern Europe from France to Ukraine as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. The Cornelian cherry tree ( Cornus mas ) can be grown in orchards, but it is often seen in the forests of Georgia where it grows up to 1,350 metres above sea level. It is a medium to large deciduous tree, growing from 5-12 metres tall. The flowers are small with four yellow petals in clusters, which flower in February and March. The Cornus mas has three botanical varieties: (1) var. typica Sanadze with cylindrical red fruits, (2) var. pyriformis Sanadze with pear-shaped red fruits, and (3) var. flava vest with yellow fruits. The fruits are oblong red drupes about 2 centimetres ...
Post a Comment
Read more