Ruby Moonlight
by Ali Cobby Eckermann
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Ruby Moonlight, a novel of the impact of colonisation in mid north South Australia around 1880. The main character, Ruby, refugee of a massacre, shelters in the woods where she befriends an Irishman trapper. The poems convey how fear of discovery is overcome by the need for human contact, which, in a tense unravelling of events, is forcibly challenged by an Aboriginal lawman. The natural world is richly observed and Ruby's courtship is measured by the turning of the seasons.Tags
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Member Reviews
http://shawjonathan.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/ali-cobby-eckermann/
This book is a lot slimmer than you'd expect of a novel, just 80 pages all up. This is spare, restrained story-telling. If it wasn't for the power generated by the flash of imagery, it would feel like notes for a novel rather than the thing itself. It's a story of ill-starred love. A young Aboriginal woman survives the murder of her community and after wandering for some time with just nature and an ancestor spirit for company, she finds companionship and intimacy with an isolated Irish fur trapper. Their idyll, forbidden by both their cultures, can't last. You might think you know this story before you open the book. You don't.
This book is a lot slimmer than you'd expect of a novel, just 80 pages all up. This is spare, restrained story-telling. If it wasn't for the power generated by the flash of imagery, it would feel like notes for a novel rather than the thing itself. It's a story of ill-starred love. A young Aboriginal woman survives the murder of her community and after wandering for some time with just nature and an ancestor spirit for company, she finds companionship and intimacy with an isolated Irish fur trapper. Their idyll, forbidden by both their cultures, can't last. You might think you know this story before you open the book. You don't.
A beautifully written journey of loss, love and finding your true path.
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Best Australian Books of the 21st Century
88 works; 2 members
Author Information
9+ Works 146 Members
Ali Cobby Eckermann was born in 1963 in Brighton, Adelaide, Australia. Her first book of poetry was Little Bit Long Time. Her first verse novel was His Father's Eyes. Her second verse novel, Ruby Moonlight, won the Kuril Dhagun Indigenous Writing Fellowship and the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. It also was awarded the "Book of the Year" at the show more NSW Premier's Literary Awards in 2013. Some of her other works include her autobiography, Too Afraid to Cry, and two poetry books, Love Dreaming & Other Poems and Inside My Mother. She was the winner of the Tangkanungku Pintyanthi Fellowship from the 2016 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Original publication date
- 2012
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- Members
- 51
- Popularity
- 591,159
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.08)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
