UNSWriting - In conversation with Drusilla Modjeska
- When: 9th October
- Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
- Location: Io Myers Studio, UNSW (entrance Gate 2 High St, Kensington)
- Link: http://sam.arts.unsw.edu.au/unswriting/
In 1968 Papua New Guinea is on the brink of independence, and everything is about to change. Amidst the turmoil filmmaker Leonard arrives from England with his Dutch wife, Rika, to study and film an isolated village high in The Mountains.
Rika and Leonard are also confronted with the new university in Moresby, where intellectual ambition and the idealism of youth are creating friction among locals such as Milton - a hot-headed young playwright - and visiting westerners, such as Martha, to whom Rika becomes close. But it is when Rika meets brothers Jacob and Aaron that all their lives are changed forever.
Drusilla Modjeska's sweeping novel takes us deep into this fascinating, complex country, whose culture and people cannot escape the march of modernity that threatens to overwhelm them. It is a riveting story of love, loss, grief and betrayal.
THE MOUNTAIN IS AT ONCE A LUMINOUS WORK OF FICTION AND AN ANATOMY OF IDEAS OF LIGHT AND ENLIGHTENMENT. IN THE ENTWINEMENT OF LARGE AND SMALLER HISTORIES MODJESKA BRINGS HER HONED TALENTS TO THE CREATION OF A MULTIFARIOUS, EXTRAORDINARY AND DAZZLING NOVEL THAT FEELS NOTHING LIKE A DEBUT'. -- WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
You can purchase THE MOUNTAIN on the night at 10% off the RRP, courtesy of the UNSW bookshop.
'Drusilla Modjeska’s books include the award winning Exiles At Home, Poppy, The Orchard, Stravinsky’s Lunch. Her most recent novel, The Mountain, based on her experience of Papua New Guinea over thirty years, was published in May 2012. Drusilla grew up in England, travelling to Papua New Guinea in 1968 with her anthropologist husband. She moved to Australia in 1971, and has been re-visiting PNG since 2004. She lives in Sydney.
