Silver Wattle

by Belinda Alexandra

In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adela and Klara must flee Prague to find refuge with their 
 uncle in Australia. There, Adela becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel 
 the competition from Hollywood.

But while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away. And ultimately dreams of the silver screen must compete with the bonds of a lifetime ...

Silver Wattle confirms Belinda Alexandra as one of our foremost story-tellers. Weaving fact into inspiring fiction with great flair and imagination, this is a novel as full of hope, glamour and heartbreak as the film industry itself.

'An absorbing story of hope and despair, loyalty and love' - Woman's Day

'Readers are kept on their toes ... and it's a worthwhile wait' - Courier-Mail

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Australia, Romance, Audiobook, Book Club

486 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia and internationally. She is the daughter of a Russian mother and an Australian father and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth. Her love of other cultures is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a volunteer carer for the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES).
Belinda is also an ambassador for the World League for the Protection of Animals (Australia) and lives in Sydney with a menagerie of adored pets.
Join Belinda's community of readers at facebook.com/BelindaAlexandraAuthor

Reviews

[Suz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sisters Adéla and Klára live a charmed life in Europe, with their loving mother. The only thing missing is their beloved father, who had previously passed away. Their mother remarried somewhat unwisely; this man is a greedy villain and will not stop until he can get his hands on the family money. He stops at nothing to get his way. To me this marriage was fraught, I’m not sure why their mother chose this lazy and manipulative fraudster.

The sisters love each other deeply, and as their dear mum passes away, the message is loud and clear for big sister Adéla. She must take extra care of her younger and more sensitive sister, Klára.

The author presents a grand multi layered story which takes us over more than one continent, from the home the girls loved in Prague, all the way to Australia where their uncle has settled after spending most of his life travelling the globe. These descriptions are always lush and vivid, it’s evident the author herself is a keen traveller and loves animals.

I am not a huge fan of historical fiction, so this was a different kind of read for me, but I did enjoy the vividness and imagery of music, animals, and clothing as this was set in the 1920’s. The girls were both talented women, Klára an amazing pianist and her older sister a photographer who becomes enamoured with the movie industry. This novel is full of family love, the fierce bond of sisterhood, love both realised and unrequited, mixed in with a little of the spiritual realm.

A large undertaking and many layers, a book I am glad I finally read as it was one of my first on my Goodreads list. I ended up listening to it after my mum said it was one of her favourite books, narrated by the talented Caroline Lee. Her transition from Australian to European, male to female was outstanding. It flowed like a radio play! Historical genre readers will love this.

[Phrynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on the degree to which I was skimming rather than reading a lot of the text I can only give this two stars. I did enjoy the descriptions of Australia and the bush but the story was occasionally nonsensical and it went on for far too long. At the end the convenient way we farewell poor Freddy was way over the top. So just an okay read for me and not one I would recommend.

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually three and a half stars, almost four. I enjoyed this story of Adela and Klara as they are forced to flee Prague and seek refuge in Australia with their uncle. Characters are well drawn and the novel gives a great picture of the early film industry in Australia. It also contains a love interest and tension created by the presence of the one who seeks to eliminate Adela and Klara. Interesting reading and I suspect a lot of research went into it. A shame then that the koala is referred to as a native bear when koalas are not bears, but perhaps that is what people of the time thought they were and even today some people think that is the case.
That quibble aside,I will be interested to read another of Belinda Alexandra's novels.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I wasn't sure of this book before I started it, I soon warmed to it, and fell into the story, and by the fifth chapter, I was hooked. The storyline moved at a good pace, and while I felt the chapters were a little long, the frequent breaks and scene changes made up for that. While the climax of the book was a little disappointing, the drawn out resolution more than made up for it, but the actual ending left me wanting a little more justice.

[Lesincele · Rating 2 out of 5]

La verdad es que me ha resultado muy pesado y aburrido.
El tema del cine australiano mudo etc si que me ha resultado más interesante. Pero la trama puff me ha parecido lenta en exceso y que no tenía demasiada chicha.
Y lo que es el misterio que original toda la trama ha sido muy predecible y con un desenlace rápido y muy flojo.

[Bettina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow WOW...I'm totally in love with this book. Best book I've read this year so far. Belinda is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. This story was captivating right from the start. Adela and Klara having to flee Prague to live in Australia after their mother is murdered and with their lives in danger as well. I found all the characters captivating too and enjoyed the ups and downs in Adela and Philip's love story. You know you're reading an awesome book when the author has you crying and laughing throughout the story along with the characters. There was lots of drama happening throughout the story. It's going to take awhile for me to get over this book. I want to give it 10 stars!

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to an audio version of this book

It's just after WWI in Prague, Adela is 17 and Klara is 12 when their mother dies suddenly. They quickly discover that she was murdered by their stepfather and soon he is after them, as their mother left most of her estate to them. Their Aunt Josephine, who is their guardian sends them to live with her brother in Australia.

Adela becomes a movie director in the silent movie era and with the help of her husband Freddie is successful. Tradegy strikes a few times and their lives change.

It was a pretty good story but I didn't enjoy it as much as the earlier books I read by Belinda Alexandra "Wild Lavender" and "White Gardenia"

[The Cats’ Mother · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this, but less than the others of hers that I have read - the story dragged a lot in the middle then descended into melodrama. Sisters Klara and Adela have to leave their luxurious life in post WW1 Prague when their mother is murdered by their step-father, and go to stay with their eccentric uncle in Australia. The descriptions of filming silent movies were interesting but the story was pretty predictable.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book in the end. There was some times the book was bogged down with too much detail and there were some over the top bits, but overall I liked the character and voice of Adela and wanted to know what happened to the rest of her life when the book finished. Loved that it is set in Australia and her descriptions of nature and wildlife were fabulous.

[Ann Mallia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been sometime since I have read a Belinda Alexandra book and I thoroughly enjoyed it - found it very hard to put down.
I am so pleased that I have more of her books on my bookshelf.

[Kamilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a long time to finish this book. As much as I love Belinda Alexandra's writing, this story just didn't grab me.
It is a very multilayered, long-winded book with lots of characters. It encompasses many decades, but somehow, something got lost in the writing. I couldn't even like the main character, Adéle, who tells the story of how she and her sister moved to Australia. Her family's story would have been interesting enough, but the author tried (and, in my opinion, failed) to make the other storylines just as important. Having to run from an evil stepfather across to the other side of the world and trying to make a living there sounded like a promising plot, but the wow moment was missing for me. The history of Australian filmmaking was interesting to an extent, but it bored me to death. Tha vivid description of early australian life, the flora and fauna was also very interesting, and it made me smile as each place was mentioned, as having lived here, I often visit them myself. This was the only positive in the story. Adéle's narrative lacked lustre, failed to raise interest and bored the living daylights out of me. I really couldn't care less. She just seemed so dull.
It's a shame. Usually I can't wait to pick up Belinda Alexandra's books. This one wasn't bad enough for me to put down and forget about it, but it wasn't good enough for me to be mesmerised by it. It was just okay. And these days, an okay book isn't going to make me want to recommend it to friends. Too bad.

[Maco Zaldivar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hacía mucho tiempo que quería leer este libro.
Belinda Alexandra es una autora cuya pluma me gusta mucho, y sus historias me transportan; creo que soy arte de ellas.
Después de la que termine la Primera Guerra Mundial, en Praga, Marta (recientemente viuda y con dos hijas) decide volver a casarse, esta vez con Milo. Pero ella no conoce las verdaderas intenciones de él. Al morir Marta, sus hijas deberán huir a Australia junto a su tío.
Allí, Klara y Adela conocerán un mundo distinto al que están acostumbradas. Sus vidas cambiarán, y el amor y la tierra harán florecer distintos sentimientos y actitudes en ambas.
Australia es un país salvaje y agreste, y además allá las espera un futuro prometedor.
Las descripciones de la sociedad de ese momento son impresionantes; y también cabe mencionar la maravillosa flora y fauna, ya que cobra vida mientras leemos.
Gracias a esta novela, aprendí que desconocía totalmente el papel del cine en ese momento y la importancia del cine italiano, en particular.
Alexandra también menciona al Sistema Medico Aéreo, del que ya había leído en un libro de Barbara Brickmore; pero está bueno recordarlo.
La novela tienen todos los ingredientes para atraparme: intriga, amor, venganza, h8istoria y pasión.
La recomiendo; si nunca leyeron a Belinda Alexandra es bueno empezar por acá, y si ya la leyeron léanla de nuevo porque esta historia transcurre en una época y un lugar diferente al que estamos acostumbradas.

[Jane Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually read the book rather than listened to it but there was no book listed only this CD. Very much in the style of her other books.. lightweight and predictable. Good filler book when you're in between good ones. One that you borrow, not buy!

[Rocío Cruz Vázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aunque a ratos se me ha hecho un poco denso, me ha gustado mucho, más que mi primera incursión con la autora, La gardenia blanca de Shaghai. El final, desde luego, es bastante mejor que en la novela anterior. Seguiré leyendo otras obras de Belinda Alexandra.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'était très sympa mais j'ai pas trop saisi où elle voulait nous emmener avec son histoire.

[Jessica Sadler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book I didn’t want to put down because I wanted to know what happened next. The storyline was an enjoyable one further enhanced because of the historical context.

[Rita Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! So many layers, so many stories, beautifully woven together by this awesome author. One of her best.

[Roxanna López · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 stars. This charming novel is a difficult one to rate: I'd give a 2.5 to the writing but 3.8 stars for enjoyment. At the end I went not with the average but with what felt more accurate.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Silver Wattle is a straightforward narrative with an utterly predictable plot but as an audio book en route to work it held my interest for a fortnight or so. It’s the story of two Czech sisters, Adela and Klara, whose nefarious stepfather murders their mother – and plans to murder them too so that he and his fancy woman can have their inheritance.

The girls flee to Australia to live in safety with their uncle and his wife, and things go smoothly enough. Klara is a talented but highly strung pianist, while Adela turns out to be a gifted photographer who eventually makes a career in film. There is an interesting sub theme about the early days of the film industry in Australia and how American distributers sabotaged the development of Australian cinema, but Adela marries one of these distributers (a) because he clandestinely supports her career and (b) because Beastly Beatrice cons Adela’s beloved Dr Philip into marriage and Adela is on the rebound.

Well, it doesn’t take much imagination to work out that one of these rivals for Adela’s affections needs to be eliminated, and it’s not hard to find a nasty character to do it. After 14 CDs (that’s about 16 trips to and from work) all ends up happily ever after as it should, and now I need to find something new to listen to!

[Tien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two sisters fled their home in Prague when a sinister murder of their mother and a plot against them was revealed. They found welcoming arms in their estranged uncle in Sydney Australia. Adela and Klara are intelligent and talented girls. They are also kind, generous and courageous. The book explores the relationships across cultures and the social scene of the time (mainly the movies).

Belinda Alexandra shows in this book & White Gardenia of the love she has for Australia, especially it's flora & fauna. Her care in the vivid descriptions of nature in both books has definitely put in my mind that I should care more for my home. I'm not a nature person (city chic all the way) but I do care for the world and she has impressed in me how beautiful the world / nature was just a century ago and how much we have lost now. However, I am just not fully convinced to be a complete vegetarian yet (my husband would definitely protest on that front).

[Vivien Bridges · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book a bit ho him to begin with. The letters written to fill in past events was stilted, I thought. It also felt as if the author was trying to capture every bit of Australian history and jumped into these at times. For all that, it was a good tale and held my interest to the end.

[Ruth Bonetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual and rarely documented slant tells of the early history of film in Australia, all the better seen through the lens of a female emigrant from Czechoslovakia. The characters are engaging and the plight of the two sisters is well drawn.

[Kylie Duthie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished this book, but apart from 50 pages toward the end, it didn't really grab me. Too predictable for me. Happy endings all around.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Belinda Alexandra book and there's definitely some themes, even though the previous book I read (and enjoyed, Wild Lavender) was set in another part of the world entirely (although in the same general time period, the 1920s forward).

Ms Alexandra knows how to weave a cracking good story that keeps you turning the pages. It isn't high literature but it isn't trying to be either. Ms Alexandra excels at plotting a good yarn, even if some of the details aren't so well taken care of. For instance, in the early part of the book where the young women/girls are in danger in Prague, the menace isn't very well brought to life - we are simply told they are in grave danger and a few sketchy plotlines and characters are thrown in to convince us. Here's a couple of examples from that part of the book:

A man is watching them - he isn't described as being terrifying or threatening or carrying a weapon or attempting to abduct them or anything; he is simply a "bad man" who we must believe, despite not being given much to go on, that he intends them harm. It's almost like stick figures drawn in big crayons, it's that simplistic.

Speaking of that, the second example is how the girls and their Aunt Josephine come to learn of this grave danger (prior to the bad man appearing), which is this: another man turns up and tells them. Yes, you read that right. A strange man turns up and tells them he's overheard a plot against them and wants to warn them. More stick figures drawn with large primary coloured crayons. There's absolutely no intrigue or layers to that part of the story.

But the benefit it has is the story moves along. The girls are in peril, they're set sail to Australia, and we move onto the next bit of the story without being too traumatised by descriptions of assaults or psychological warfare.

And on with the story we indeed go! There's lots more to come, and it's all good stuff. The characters are quite brilliant in a way - they are both simple enough to follow along with without having a psychological textbook open to try to discern their intricate make-up, and interesting enough that we want to know what they do next and find them credible as people (not stick figures drawn in crayon). It's quite a fine art form to do this, and I salute Ms Alexandra for her ability to do it so well.

There are a few main themes I've already picked up on from reading only 2 novels by this author, and one is thwarted passion. This appears in this novel as well: the main character and her paramour are desperately in love, destined to be together, soul mates. And yet devious characters and dastardly events intervene and their love is thwarted. They cannot be together. It is agony. it is torture. It is so damn unfair!

I'm going to take a short break from the novels of Ms Alexandra, but I'll be back. I've already sourced 2 more novels (White Gardenia and Sapphire Skies) so once I've had a read of someone else for a bit, I'll pick them up for another cracking read.

[Jo Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel mixed about this book. I loved it and I hated it and I disliked this, but overall I mostly enjoyed it. I think. Actually, no. That's why it's three stars and not four. I liked the middle and then Adela made a mess of her love life and I ceased to care.

When Philip betrayed her, I was furious with him. I wanted him to leave and leave Beatrice behind. I liked Beatrice. She was interesting and seemed to like Adela. I wish she had stayed and raised the baby. I don't believe one ounce that she's the devil she's made out to be in the end. Fuck that shit. I'd rather if this had ended with Beatrice and Adela as lesbian lovers. I was so over Philip at the end, I wasn't even enjoying their rekindled relationship. I didn't care. Adela could have ended up with no one and I'd have preferred that. I'd rather had though she'll end up with someone totally new one day, than Philip. He shitted me, and I was numb after his betrayal.

Freddy. Gosh my heart hurts for him. Why? Why did it have to happen? Why couldn't they honestly have kept the main chick with the other dude? The one that really loves her and proves his love? Why?

Bye.

[Rhoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the 1920s, Adela and Klara are forced to flee Prague after the sudden death of their mother and they begin to feel that their own lives may be in danger. They take refuge with their uncle in Sydney, where Klara continues her music education and Adela takes an interest in cinema.

At a time when the local film industry in Australia is under threat with competition from Hollywood, Adela defies the odds, becoming a film director and making her mark in a swiftly changing industry.

This was such an engrossing story that I really enjoyed and had all of the elements that I love in a book of this genre: interesting characters, wonderful descriptions of nature, respect and appreciation for animals, fascinating snippets of history and a storyline that makes you somehow feel that you are “involved” in it!

I particularly enjoyed the foray into Australian film and cinema in the 1920s. Also, once again I am struck by how much the author conveys respect, compassion and love for all people, nature and animals which I have found is woven through all of her books that I’ve read. Loved this and didn’t want it to end! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite finding it very hard to get into this book and struggling to get through some overly long chapters and sections, I was pleased that I made the effort to stick with it. The extensive research undertaken by the author really showed through in the text. The insight into the migrant experience and the early film industry in Australia was interesting and handled well. The descriptions of the life of the more privileged parts of society contrasted with that of the less fortunate provided some really good insights into life in that period. I was less engaged with the more detailed romances and somewhat heavy handed dramatisation of elements of the story. While not necessary my literary taste, it was, nevertheless an interesting read.

[Naomi'sBookObsession❤️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Belinda Alexandra book I've immensely enjoyed reading.

Being a fan of historical fiction, I loved that it was predominantly set in the 1920s. Belinda creates fully immersive stories by her obvious dedicated research she does to write books that bring the characters to life and always leave me with a benefit of knowledge and a greater understanding as well as the satisfaction that comes from reading a good book!

This immersive story has drama, romance, suspense and more and will leave you intellectually stimulated from the insights of the photography, music fashions and movie industry from the 1920s.

[Micci · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Silver Wattle offers a beautifully written, almost fairy tale like, journey of two sisters fleeing their wicked step father from Prague all the way to Australia. Set in the 1920's Belinda Alexandra allows her readers to explore the magic of the Australian bush and film industry, her passion is impossible to ignore.

The characters, stories, and scenery can all easily be surmised with one word. Enchanting.

An great holiday read.

[Linda Sanggaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and was captivated by the characters and many side plots. The research was apparent with the reference to Australian wildlife and I loved the detail etched into every page.

I was presently surprised at the ease in which I read this book and I am so happy that I picked it up at the hospital where I was staying of all places. I am definitely a fan and can't wait to read more from this author.