Shell

Kristina Olsson

Shell
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Australia
Country
Australia
Published
1 October 2019
Pages
384
ISBN
9781925685336

Shell

Kristina Olsson

A big, bold and hauntingly beautiful story that captures a defining moment in Australia’s history.

Everywhere he looked he saw what Utzon saw. The drama of harbour and horizon, and at night, the star-clotted sky. It held the shape of the possible, of a promise made and waiting to be kept …

In 1965 as Danish architect Jorn Utzon’s striking vision for the Sydney Opera House transforms the skyline and unleashes a storm of controversy, the shadow of the Vietnam War and a deadly lottery threaten to tear the country apart.

Journalist Pearl Keogh, exiled to the women’s pages after being photographed at an anti-war protest, is desperate to find her two missing brothers and save them from the draft. Axel Lindquist, a visionary young glass artist from Sweden, is obsessed with creating a unique work that will do justice to Utzon’s towering masterpiece.

In this big, bold and hauntingly beautiful portrait of art and life, Shell captures a world on the brink of seismic change through the eyes of two unforgettable characters caught in the eye of the storm.

And reminds us why taking a side matters.

Praise for Shell

“Kristina Olsson is such a graceful, wise and perceptive writer. The woman’s massive heart is one big literary taproot feeding all of us answers about the Australian condition’ Trent Dalton, bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe

"A luminous look at a city at a time of change, a time when the building of the Sydney Opera House was a reach for greatness.‘ The New York Times
"Olsson’s writing is beautiful, captivating, and is enough in itself to recommend this book … Her descriptions are vivid, evocative.’ New York Journal of Books

"A classic in the making.‘ Australian Financial Review

"A shimmering love letter to Sydney, with the husk of the emerging Opera House its beating heart … Required reading.’ Australian Women’s Weekly

Review

When most people see the Sydney Opera House, they think of sails on the harbour. But Kristina Olsson (and her character Axel Lindquist) is reminded of shells you might find on the beaches of Sweden. Set in the 1960s, Shell focuses on two seemingly unrelated historical events – the building of the Opera House and the deadly lottery of Vietnam War conscription – and binds them together in two deeply personal stories.

Pearl Keogh is a journalist who’s been ‘banished’ to the women’s pages after she was photographed at an anti-war demonstration. Axel Lindquist is a visionary glass blower who’s obsessed with creating a unique piece of art for the Opera House foyer, something that will adequately reflect Jørn Utzon’s masterpiece.

Pearl hasn’t seen her family for a number of years, but with conscription looming and her two younger brothers of fighting age, she’s desperate to find them and somehow save them from going to war. Axel has arrived from Sweden to work with Utzon, and through him we witness the outsider’s view of Australia in the ’60s: the tall poppy syndrome, the racism, the banality, but also the simplicity, the honesty, and the hard yakka that people willingly put in to build monumental projects like the Opera House and the Snowy River Scheme.

Pearl and Axel’s stories run parallel to each other until they finally meet and connect. It is through this meeting of minds (and bodies) that our two historic events merge and melt into one another.

Kristina Olsson is a master of writing about the push-pull of human emotions: regrets, opportunities, beauty, ugliness, humanity, callousness – all are laid bare on the page, but interwoven with enormous beauty and depth. This is a fantastic, thought-provoking read that I expect will be up for any number of awards this season.


Gabrielle Williams works as a bookseller at Readings Malvern and is the Grants Officer for the Readings Foundation. She is also the author of books for young adults.

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