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This is the story of two sisters, Mary and Grace. As small children, growing up at their property called Abyssinia, they played with their dolls house together, side by side, always. Grace loved Mary, and Mary loved Grace. But inseparable bonds in life can be unexpectedly shattered. When this happens to Grace, she is plunged into a dark and mesmerising world, a world full of bells and the ringing sky, of odd little children, strange events and frighteningly bizarre grown-ups.

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3 reviews
A very puzzling read, and almost dreamlike, this story about Mary and Grace had me intrigued all the way to the very end. Not your typical mystery.
½
A very strange fantasy about a doll’s house. Its about what is real and what isn’t. Here is a review from a 14yr old "Abyssinia is a fictional novel written by the well-known Australian author, Ursula Dubosarsky. It is a psychological thriller and mystery about people and dolls disappearing and reappearing in each other’s places. Abyssinia is a book about two little girls called Mary and Grace, who live on a country farm called, Abyssinia . Both of the girls love to play with their dollhouse and during the book the events of their lives seem to somehow reflect on the events of the lives of the dolls that they play with in their dollhouse. The story is divided into two parts, the first being about the dolls and the second part show more being about Mary and Grace. At the start and end of the book there is a newspaper about the dollhouse that is written by Grace. Grace stands as a witness to the mystery and actually understands what is going on, although through out the book it doesn’t quite seem like that. I think that it has a pretty good storyline although it could have been explained better as I thought some parts were difficult to understand. Abyssinia is intended for older readers and I think that people between the age of twelve and seventeen would really enjoy this book. Overall I really liked Abyssinia because I thought it was very interesting and clever. I also loved the way it kept you intrigued to the very end to find out what really happened. Tess, aged 14, Melbourne, Victoria show less

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66+ Works 1,742 Members
Ursula Dubosarsky was born in Ursula Coleman, Sydney, in 1961. She is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults, whose work is characterised by a child's vision and voice. She has won nine national literary prizes, including five New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. She is the author of illustrated books show more and novels, and also three works of non-fiction about the English language, grammar and etymology for children, featuring a comically enthusiastic character known as "The Word Spy". These "Word Spy" books, illustrated by Tohby Riddle, have won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, the Children's Book Council of Australia Junior Judges' Award and Book of the Year Award. In the United States and Canada "The Word Spy" is published under the title "The Word Snoop. Three of her books have been adapted for theatre - "The Red Shoe", "The Terrible Plop" and "Too Many Elephants In This House". She is a Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominee and a Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Nominee. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Abyssinia
Original title
Abyssinia
Original publication date
2003

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Tween
DDC/MDS
823.3Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish fiction1558-1625
BISAC

Statistics

Members
34
Popularity
835,444
Reviews
2
Rating
(3.83)
Languages
English, Italian
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
13