The Woman in the Window (Paperback)

Alma De Groen

ISBN 10: 0868195936 / ISBN 13: 9780868195933

Published by Currency Press Pty Ltd, Paddington, 1999

About this Item

Paperback. In Stalin's Russia, the great poet Anna Ahkmatova is forbidden to write. In a future, denatured world, a young woman, Rachel, searches for what is missing in her life and the sterile world she inhabits. De Groen uses the lessons of a repressive, torturous chapter in history to illuminate an imagined sterile, artless future where the muses and gods of literature and science have virtually sunk without trace. In a world where a 'poet' means a man who researches poetry in the archives, where there is no nature or wildlife and the moon and stars are seen only in a virtual room created by accessing the science archives, Rachel becomes a dispossessed Akhmatova. When the literary archives, which are seldom accessed any more, are about to be switched off and the 'poets' de-listed, Rachel risks her life to save the poetry archives for future generations. (2 acts: 2 men, 5 women) In Stalin's Russia, the great poet Anna Ahkmatova is forbidden to write. Her work is memorised by women friends who for thirty years have risked their lives to preserve her words. In a future, denatured world, a young woman, Rachel, searches for what is missing in her life and the sterile world she inhabits. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780868195933

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Woman in the Window (Paperback)
• Publisher: Currency Press Pty Ltd, Paddington
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0868195936
• ISBN 13: 9780868195933
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Two worlds ruled by terror interact: Russia's poet-hero Anna Akhmatova is under house arrest in Stalinist Leningrad, while her friends attempt to save her writings. In a futuristic Australia, a similar oppression by corporate society has suppressed all memory of literature and the natural world.

About the Author

ALMA DE GROEN began writing plays in 1968. While in Canada in 1970, Alma won a national playwriting competition with her short work, The Joss Adams Show. Her plays include The Sweatproof Boy (later titled Perfectly All Right), The After-Life of Arthur Cravan, Going Home, Chidley, Vocations, The Rivers of China (winner of the Premier's Literary Award for Drama in both New South Wales and Victoria), The Girl Who Saw Everything (winner of the 1993 AWGIE for Best Stage Play), and Blood Sisters. Her play The Woman in the Window was supported by a grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council and shortlisted for the 1999 NSW Premier's Award for Drama. De Groen was awarded the 1985 AWGIE award for her television adaptation of Man Of Letters. She later wrote a telemovie After Marcuse for ABC TV and has written scripts for the television series Single and Rafferty's Rules. De Groen has also worked for radio: Available Light and Stories In The Dark (with Ian Mackenzie), which was the Australian 1996 Prix Italia entry. De Groen was the first playwright to win the Patrick White Literary Award for her contribution to Australian theatre.