Shell

August 6, 2018
Olsson (In One Skin) uses the building of the Sydney Opera House as the backdrop for a contemplative story of personal guilt and political upheaval. When Australian announces a draft for Vietnam in 1965, Pearl Keogh, a journalist for the Telegraph, begins a frantic search for the younger brothers she abandoned after their mother’s early death. Swedish artist Axel Lindquist arrives in Sydney to produce a glass sculpture for the new opera house. He struggles with the language, designing an appropriate sculpture, and lingering animosity from others toward Sweden’s neutrality during World War II. Axel and Pearl drift into a relationship, though Olsson’s jarring switch between their points of view and heavy reliance on internal thoughts obscures their bond. Pearl finally tracks down her brothers and learns they have already enlisted, causing her to tumble into guilt-ridden reminiscences. Meanwhile, Axel wanders through Sydney, using his reflections on art and quest to meet the reclusive Opera House architect to distract him from the his emotions surrounding his Swedish resistance fighter father’s disappearance after the war. Olsson juxtaposes Pearl and Axel’s complex feelings about their fractured families and tenuous connection with news of politician’s increasing hostility toward the Opera House project. Readers who do not mind a leisurely paced story will enjoy exploring these historical political tensions and meditations on personal responsibility.

August 15, 2018
It's 1965 in Australia. The Sydney Opera House is being built, and compulsory National Service for men means they could be sent to Vietnam. Both are political hot-button issues.Pearl Keogh, a journalist, has been relegated to the women's section of her paper because her political bias became obvious when she was seen at rallies opposing Australia's entering the war. Thirty-something Pearl was 14 when her mother died, and the care of much younger siblings fell to her. When her father became emotionally unable to care for the family, Pearl went to a convent and her two brothers, to a nearby orphanage. Pearl lost touch when she got her first professional job and (selfishly, in her mind) stopped visiting her brothers. Later, she was horrified to find they'd run away. Now, at 19 and 20, they run the risk of being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Pearl is determined to prevent this from happening, but first she must find them. She meets Axel Lindquist, a Swedish immigrant glassmaker. When Axel was a child, his father's death by suicide left him feeling that it was his fault. He carries the weight of his past heavily, as does Pearl. They form a bond more for physical pleasure than love and begin to unwrap their pasts for the other's inspection. Through this slow reveal, the reader comes to learn of the burdens they've carried unnecessarily. The book is cerebral rather than plot-driven and moves slowly to its final resolution. Readers who like a sense of forward momentum may feel forced--or perhaps encouraged--to slow down and enter the characters' inner lives. And while that will be worth it for some, others may find the pace too slow to sustain interest.Olsson's subtle and nuanced tale displays how deeply the past--or at least one's perception of it--informs life in the present.

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August 1, 2018
In Sydney in 1965, journalist Pearl Keogh is dissatisfied at work, relegated to fluff pieces and frustrated by her newspaper's tacit endorsement of the government's introduction of a national military draft and involvement in Vietnam. By chance, she meets Swedish glassmaker Axel Lindquist, commissioned to work on the Sydney Opera House, which is besieged by a storm of public criticism as construction drags on and prices mount. As Pearl and Axel develop a romantic relationship, each struggles to understand the secrets and pain that mark the other's past, including Pearl's search for her runaway brothers and Axel's complicated family history. Olsson weaves these seemingly disparate threads together into a fully realized, cohesive tale of guilt on both a personal and national level, and of the transformative power of art. Olsson's American debut features lyrical writing that brings the cultural upheaval of 1960s Australia vividly to life, and readers who appreciate leisurely paced, thoughtful literary fiction will savor each word of this emotional story of two people?and a country?reckoning with their past and future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)