All the Birds, Singing in Stella Project

Jan 06, 2014 Michael Livingston rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A wonderful book and a worthy winner of the Miles Franklin (it's also the last of the Stella Prize long list reading challenge that I set myself and probably my favourite of the 12 books). Sparse and beautiful, with a fascinatingly damaged character taking centre stage, Wyld has exceeded the promise of her first novel with something memorable, powerful and unsettling. Beautiful prose, neat structure, an overwhelming sense of place and brilliant characters. Highly recommended. ...more

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Feb 29, 2024 nina.reads.books rated it liked it · review of another edition

I loved The Bass Rock so had high hopes for the author's previous book which won the Miles Franklin Award in 2014 but it didn't totally land for me. I found it dark and atmospheric. I enjoyed the switches in time and place. I liked the different characters but I just didn't find this a satisfying story. There was a lot left up to the reader's imagination and in this case that didn't work for me. ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Clare Snow rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cover-love, australia, nature-writing, read-challenge-all-aussie-2019, abuse, read-challenge-aus-readers-2019, sex-work, award-miles-franklin, published-2013, aust-2013-pub

So anyway, what was with that monster?

(view spoiler) ...more

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Jan 14, 2025 Natasha (jouljet) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: stella-prize-longlist, miles-franklin-longlist

Bird calls, at every key moment. A bird's presence captured at so many pivotal places. Woven with the story, to capture that background of bird calls that is the soundtrack to life for Australians.

This is told by chopping back and forth, across time and places and events. It's disorientating, gripping and utterly compelling.

Our protagonist is revealing several different timelines, little by little, fragments of memory, to provide grasps of the story. It's told in a way that you find yourself f ...more

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Jul 05, 2018 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Overall, I really liked this. At first I struggled with the way the plot jumped back and forth, but in the end I thought it was a really clever way of getting into Jake's head, with all these memories from her past jumbling around.

My favourite storyline in the book was the present day one, so I was a little disappointed there wasn't a great deal of closure for Jake here. I also felt like the character of Lloyd wasn't very well-explored and that there were lots of details missing from his story. ...more

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Oct 10, 2014 jeniwren rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, anzlitlovers, australian-women-writers-challenge

This I read along with my face to face bookgroup and there was a mixed reaction with members either loving or hating this one. I was in the former camp and thought it a great pick by the judges for the Miles Franklin Award in 2014. I liked the structure being an effective way of telling the story, moving the protagonist forward whilst the other strand attempts to bring her back and asks the question can we ever escape our past? The judges called the novel a 'moral fable' which I do agree sums up ...more

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