When the Night Comes in Aussie Readers

May 07, 2014 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014-release, contemporary-fiction, read-on-kindle, aussie-authors, net-galley, own-read, arc

The ship Nella Dan was bright red – it lightened and brightened Isla’s day. Living with her brother and mother in Hobart, Tasmania was different from what she had envisioned. They had left mainland Australia when her mother and father separated, but she and her brother would ring their father every two weeks from the phone box down at the corner. But Hobart was cold and grey – the house they rented was cold and grey – their mother’s sadness was cold and grey and lonely.

So when the beautiful brig ...more

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May 08, 2014 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-author, arc-are, netgalley-reviews

Favel Parrett's debut, Past the Shallows, caught the imagination of the Australian literary community in 2011. When the Night Comes is her highly anticipated second novel, in which Parrett tells the story of Isla and Bo whose lives are briefly entwined during the late 1980's.

Twelve year old Isla has recently arrived in Hobart with her newly divorced mother and younger brother. A quiet and thoughtful girl she isn't finding it easy to adjust, feeling dislocated and lonely.
Bo is a Danish galley c
Favel Parrett's debut, Past the Shallows, caught the imagination of the Australian literary community in 2011. When the Night Comes is her highly anticipated second novel, in which Parrett tells the story of Isla and Bo whose lives are briefly entwined during the late 1980's.

Twelve year old Isla has recently arrived in Hobart with her newly divorced mother and younger brother. A quiet and thoughtful girl she isn't finding it easy to adjust, feeling dislocated and lonely.
Bo is a Danish galley chef on the 'Nella Dan', a supply ship sailing regularly between Tasmania and Antarctica. He loves the rhythm of life at sea, is awed by the majesty of Antarctica, and takes pride in following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.
Bo and Isla meet when Bo becomes Isla's mother's lover over a period of 18 months or so during his periods ashore and When The Night Comes explores their brief connection, in amongst a series of life changing events.

Parrett is skilled at creating vivid scenes for the reader that also reverberate with emotion,

"...when I reach the top the view hits me with full force. the whole of the rich blue bay, still. perfect. Nella Dan there in her spot, reflecting red off the water. the Sky cloudless. Giant white cliffs running on and on, then out to the horizon, icebergs for as far as you can see. Icebergs lined up for all of time, blue and brilliant white taking up the whole scene. Every blue that there is - that exists. One million shades of blue - and white. The scale of it all measured against me, one man standing here. Just one man, small and breathless."

I have to admit at about a quarter of the way through the novel I actually wondered if I could finish the book, finding the often disjointed prose and repetitive phrasing irritating. However by the half way mark I'd finally settled into the dreamlike rhythm of the narrative and gained as appreciation for its unique tempo. I eliminated all distractions (i.e. sent the kids to bed) and began again, reading it straight through this time absorbed by the bitter chill, the moving water and the growing light.

When the Night Comes is a quietly powerful novel that demands all of the reader's attention, and rewards those that give it willingly. ...more

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May 27, 2014 Michael Livingston rated it it was amazing

This is a quiet and unassuming heart-breaker. Parrett's a minimalist, and the first half of the book is gentle and slow-moving, with narration from two perspectives - Bo, an assistant cook an Antarctic supply ship and Isla, an adolescent girl living in Hobart. Their lives intersect over the two seasons Bo spends docked in Hobart, and the story is told in a fragmented style, jumping backwards and forwards in time. The quiet lives of the two characters are set against beautifully described setting ...more

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