Blood and Bone

Description

Winner of the 2014 Viva La Novella Prize Blood and Bone is the tale of a man haunted by the violent truths of his ancestry. Through his attempt to document the remarkable childhood of his great-aunt Abigail, we are thrown into life at the Whangie, an austere outpost at the colonial frontier. With the death of her mother, eleven-year-old Abigail must learn to fend for herself against the cruel stewardship of her father. At war with the local Aboriginals and intent on staking his claim on the land at any cost, what occurs between the two is a stunning powerplay that exposes the limits of the human imagination. Blood and Bone is an uncompromising exploration of Australia's dark history and its legacy today.

Daniel Davis Wood was born in Sydney and currently teaches literature and history at the Ecole d'Humanite in Hasliberg Goldern, Switzerland. Between 2009 and 2012, he worked on a PhD thesis in Literary Studies at the University of Melbourne. He also helped to organise an international humanities symposium, co-ordinated a fortnightly reading group, co-edited the academic journal Antithesis, and edited and published a collection of essays on the work of the American writer Edward P. Jones. Blood and Bone won the 2014 Seizure Viva La Novella Prize.

'Daniel Davis Wood's Gothic-tinted family history fulfils two objectives: shedding light on a dark past, and exploring intellectual and aesthetic problems that the writing of such a story might create. [Blood and Bone] is grounded in factual material and Wood has filled the gaps with imagined scenes and conversations, but the tale is made seamless by a tight structure and a hypnotic style that seems to owe something to the work of Gerald Murnane.' Kerryn Goldsworthy, The Sydney Morning Herald