Dunedin (Virago Modern Classics) - Softcover

Mackay, Shena

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349007195 ISBN 13: 9780349007199

Publisher: Virago, 2016

Synopsis

New Zealand, 1909. After weeks at sea the new minister, Jack Mackenzie, arrives from Scotland with his unhappy wife and children in tow. A keen naturalist, he is more enthralled by the botanical - and carnal - delights of Dunedin than in the wellbeing of his flock.
In London, eighty years later, Jack Mackenzie's descendants are middle-aged, searching for a way out of their loneliness. Olive, embittered with her loveless life, steals a baby from a crowded tube; William, distraught at the death of a pupil, abandons his job as headmaster and struggles to fill his empty days. Jay Pascal, a young New Zealand vagrant of mysterious parentage arrives in London, looking for a place where he might belong.

About this title

About the Author

Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh in 1944. Her writing career began when she won a prize for a poem written when she was fourteen. Two novellas, Dust Falls on Eugene Schlumberger and Toddler on the Run were published before she was twenty. Redhill Rococo won the 1987 Fawcett Prize, Dunedin won a 1994 Scottish Arts Council Book Award, The Orchard on Fire was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize and, in 2003, Heligoland was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and Whitbread Novel Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in Southampton.

From AudioFile

Nicolette McKenzie's stylish reading and New Zealand accent are delights for listeners. However, though titled, Dunedin, only the first and last chapters of the story take place in New Zealand. The main characters, Olive and William Mackenzie, live in modern South London. The narrator's clear and precise narrative style brings a measure of organization and rhythm to a strangely disjointed tale not quite suited to an audio presentation. Though the flow of the prose and McKenzie's rich, contralto voice are easy to listen to, the story line often becomes confusing, and the inclusion of orphan Jay Pascal adds only more confusion. In this case, if you like Dickensian detail and prose, read the book. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0349007195
• ISBN 13: 9780349007199
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 432