Digging to Australia: A Novel
Dec 2014 · Open Road Media
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217
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About this eBook
An English girl takes a “tumble into a warped wonderland” when her Lewis Carroll-inspired journey unearths unexpected secrets, desires, and dangers (Los Angeles Times).
Trapped in suburban England, appalled by her parents, and desperately shy, twelve-year-old Jennifer Maybee is facing the terrors of adolescence alone. After reading Alice in Wonderland, she digs a hole in her backyard hoping to find what her mother calls the “topsy-turvy world of Australia.” Instead, led by a stray cat, Jennifer follows a secret pathway of a different sort.
On the other side of a tangle of bramble, Jennifer claims her own Wonderland: an empty playground, a deserted church, and an unattended graveyard. But Jennifer isn’t alone. She meets something close to a friend in Bronwyn, a girl burdened by family tragedy. However, it’s in a squatter named Johnny that Jennifer’s fantasies for a new life begin to bloom. He’s too charming, and too unaccountably sexy for Jennifer to listen to those nasty rumors that he might be responsible for the disappearances of other lonely girls. All Jennifer can do now is marvel at the mysteries to come.
From the Somerset Maugham Award–winning author, “dangerous secrets and sinister undertones power this uncommon coming-of-age tale” (Publishers Weekly). Jennifer Maybee, the protagonist of this “enormously enjoyable” novel of innocence lost, returns in Leslie Glaister’s Partial Eclipse (Nick Hornby).
“Perverting Wonderland into a place to smoke cigarettes and pry into other people’s secrets . . . this Alice is a match for any dark thing she encounters.” —Los Angeles Times
“Before Gillian Flynn, there was Lesley Glaister.” —Harper’s Bazaar
Trapped in suburban England, appalled by her parents, and desperately shy, twelve-year-old Jennifer Maybee is facing the terrors of adolescence alone. After reading Alice in Wonderland, she digs a hole in her backyard hoping to find what her mother calls the “topsy-turvy world of Australia.” Instead, led by a stray cat, Jennifer follows a secret pathway of a different sort.
On the other side of a tangle of bramble, Jennifer claims her own Wonderland: an empty playground, a deserted church, and an unattended graveyard. But Jennifer isn’t alone. She meets something close to a friend in Bronwyn, a girl burdened by family tragedy. However, it’s in a squatter named Johnny that Jennifer’s fantasies for a new life begin to bloom. He’s too charming, and too unaccountably sexy for Jennifer to listen to those nasty rumors that he might be responsible for the disappearances of other lonely girls. All Jennifer can do now is marvel at the mysteries to come.
From the Somerset Maugham Award–winning author, “dangerous secrets and sinister undertones power this uncommon coming-of-age tale” (Publishers Weekly). Jennifer Maybee, the protagonist of this “enormously enjoyable” novel of innocence lost, returns in Leslie Glaister’s Partial Eclipse (Nick Hornby).
“Perverting Wonderland into a place to smoke cigarettes and pry into other people’s secrets . . . this Alice is a match for any dark thing she encounters.” —Los Angeles Times
“Before Gillian Flynn, there was Lesley Glaister.” —Harper’s Bazaar
About the author
Lesley Glaister (b. 1956) is a British novelist, playwright, and teacher of writing, currently working at the University of St Andrews. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the Society of Authors. Her first novel, Honour Thy Father, was published in 1990 and received both a Somerset Maugham Award and a Betty Trask Award. Glaister became known for her darkly humorous works and has been dubbed the Queen of Domestic Gothic. Glaister was named Yorkshire Author of the Year in 1998 for her novel Easy Peasy, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Award in 1998. Now You See Me was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2002. Glaister lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her husband, author Andrew Greig.
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