Book Description

AN EXCITING YOUNG WRITER HITTING HER STRIDE AN INTOXICATING NOVEL ABOUT LOVE, LEGENDS AND THE SEA When we published Carolin's first novel, Dim, two years ago, all the reviewers said this was a writer to watch. Well, have a look. Here's Shark Song. Here is Carolin's rich, poetic, sensuous prose serving up a story of a boy and a girl ... and a boy and a boy ... a lost island, a lost father, and a magical journey along Australia's eastern coastline. Kel was born on an island in the Pacific. But during a savage hurricaine her parents were killed, and she was taken by a white family to live in Australia. Now she's old enough to want to know the truth: about where she was born, about her real parents,and the truth about her sinister foster father and brothers. Ajax is a surfer. He's always lived by the sea. He's good-looking, the world (or at least all the girls in it) is at his feet -- but he is plagued by doubt. What is he doing with his life? What is he doing hanging out with Karen, the hottest surfer chick around? Some guys would be happy, but Ajax wants more. And then he meets Kel, and nothing else seems to matter. So when Kel decides she's leaving to discover her truth, Ajax has no choice but to follow. He doesn't have many clues, but he does receive the gift of a magical necklace of shells. Each shell contains a dream of the past, of the island where Kel was born. There are dark secrets in Kel's past, and as he blunders on after her, Ajax gets tantalising -- and sometimes frightening -- glimpses of them. The danger lies not only in the past. In the present Kel's foster brothers are looking for her too. They have their own secrets, and their own mission. Window unfolds her story in beautiful, original and mesmerising language, incorporating Polynesian myths into the story of Ajax and Kel, and suffused with the wonder of the sea. This is no ordinary love story, and its ending will surprise you. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Carolin Window grew up in Sydney. She has a university honours degree and worked in educational publishing for a period. Then several years ago she threw in the regular job and the Sydney lifestyle to go bush, travel and write. She ended up in far north Queensland, where she has worked on boats in the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef for the past two years while writing Shark Song. In recent months she has moved south and relocated to Brisbane. Random House published her fantastic and fantastical first novel, Dim, the story of a girl able to throw her voice like a lyrebird and who is blessed (or is it cursed?) with nine lives, in 1996. SELLING POINTS: ** An immensely talented young writer (she's barely into her 30s) building on the critical success of her first novel. ** For those who found Dim difficult, Shark Song presents a cleaner narrative. Window is really hitting her stride in a big way with this second novel. ** A different kind of love story played out up and down the east coast of Australia. ** A must for all sea-lovers: some of the most beautiful, magical and sensual writing about the pleasures -- and terrors -- of the sea you will ever read. ** Genuine Australian magic realism. Magical shells that hold dreams, dreams that tell truths about the past and the present, portents and visions. ** Incorporates Polynesians legends of the sea. No other Australian fiction writer has explored this territory. Window's treatment of Polynesian culture -- such as the faketeli, the transvestite Polynesian youth, and the legend of the shark god of love -- is sensitive and revealing. ** Window has a unique and intensely poetic style. Her prose shimmers. There is nothing like it. ** Great reviews for DIM: 'This is a daring, imaginative first novel, written with considerable brio' SUN-HERALD (SYDNEY) 'a fantastical account of the twisted, black void between the worlds of good and evil ... There is a rhythmic beauty to Dim, a terse, poetic, spell