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Wisdom Tree #4
Juneau: Wisdom Tree 4
an acutely observed moment in which we see the universe. Set in what was once a Canadian gold-rush town, it’s about lineage, sons and fathers and great uncles, and how we’re connected through time and across the planet.
"This smart, precise, and beautiful novella reads like an emotional time bomb. Everything is quiet at first, then comes a slow build of tension, and then comes a strange ticking sound, and then—BOOM—suddenly your heart blows up. You can't write better than this. It's simply perfect."—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love.
"This smart, precise, and beautiful novella reads like an emotional time bomb. Everything is quiet at first, then comes a slow build of tension, and then comes a strange ticking sound, and then—BOOM—suddenly your heart blows up. You can't write better than this. It's simply perfect."—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love.
55 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2016
About the author
Nick Earls
75 books173 followersNick Earls is the author of twelve books, including bestselling novels such as Zigzag Street, Bachelor Kisses, Perfect Skin and World of Chickens. His work has been published internationally in English and also in translation, and this led to him being a finalist in the Premier of Queensland’s Awards for Export Achievement in 1999.
Zigzag Street won a Betty Trask Award in the UK in 1998, and is currently being developed into a feature film. Bachelor Kisses was one of Who Weekly’s Books of the Year in 1998. Perfect Skin was the only novel nominated for an Australian Comedy Award in 2003, and has recently been filmed in Italy.
He has written five novels with teenage central characters. 48 Shades of Brown was awarded Book of the Year (older readers) by the Children’s Book Council in 2000, and in the US it was a Kirkus Reviews selection in its books of the year for 2004. A feature film adapted from the novel was released in Australia by Buena Vista International in August 2006, and has subsequently screened at festivals in North America and Europe. His earlier young-adult novel, After January, was also an award-winner.
After January, 48 Shades of Brown, Zigzag Street and Perfect Skin have all been successfully adapted for theatre by La Boite, and the Zigzag Street play toured nationally in 2005.
Nick Earls was the founding chair of the Australian arm of the international aid agency War Child and is now a War Child ambassador. He is or has also been patron of Kids Who Make a Difference and Hands on Art, and an honorary ambassador for both the Mater Foundation and the Abused Child Trust. On top of that, he was the face of Brisbane Marketing’s ‘Downtown Brisbane’ and ‘Experience Brisbane’ campaigns.
His contribution to writing in Queensland led to him being awarded the Queensland Writers Centre’s inaugural Johnno award in 2001 and a Centenary Medal in 2003. His work as a writer, in writing industry development and in support of humanitarian causes led to him being named University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year in 2006. He was also the Queensland Multicultural Champion for 2006.
He has an honours degree in Medicine from the University of Queensland, and has lived in Brisbane since migrating as an eight-year-old from Northern Ireland in 1972. London’s Mirror newspaper has called him ‘the first Aussie to make me laugh out loud since Jason Donovan’. His latest novel is Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight, co-written with Rebecca Sparrow.
Zigzag Street won a Betty Trask Award in the UK in 1998, and is currently being developed into a feature film. Bachelor Kisses was one of Who Weekly’s Books of the Year in 1998. Perfect Skin was the only novel nominated for an Australian Comedy Award in 2003, and has recently been filmed in Italy.
He has written five novels with teenage central characters. 48 Shades of Brown was awarded Book of the Year (older readers) by the Children’s Book Council in 2000, and in the US it was a Kirkus Reviews selection in its books of the year for 2004. A feature film adapted from the novel was released in Australia by Buena Vista International in August 2006, and has subsequently screened at festivals in North America and Europe. His earlier young-adult novel, After January, was also an award-winner.
After January, 48 Shades of Brown, Zigzag Street and Perfect Skin have all been successfully adapted for theatre by La Boite, and the Zigzag Street play toured nationally in 2005.
Nick Earls was the founding chair of the Australian arm of the international aid agency War Child and is now a War Child ambassador. He is or has also been patron of Kids Who Make a Difference and Hands on Art, and an honorary ambassador for both the Mater Foundation and the Abused Child Trust. On top of that, he was the face of Brisbane Marketing’s ‘Downtown Brisbane’ and ‘Experience Brisbane’ campaigns.
His contribution to writing in Queensland led to him being awarded the Queensland Writers Centre’s inaugural Johnno award in 2001 and a Centenary Medal in 2003. His work as a writer, in writing industry development and in support of humanitarian causes led to him being named University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year in 2006. He was also the Queensland Multicultural Champion for 2006.
He has an honours degree in Medicine from the University of Queensland, and has lived in Brisbane since migrating as an eight-year-old from Northern Ireland in 1972. London’s Mirror newspaper has called him ‘the first Aussie to make me laugh out loud since Jason Donovan’. His latest novel is Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight, co-written with Rebecca Sparrow.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 20, 2024
5★
“For him, any conversation is a chance to know more than someone else to make a point of it. He's worse under stress.”
Tim’s father Ken, has been a professor who is used to being listened to. Tim recognises the look on his dad’s face, or a finger ready to point for emphasis, and he knows to keep quiet.
When his dad became ill and was expected to die, Tim found a different understanding of fathers and sons and what his father meant to him.
“But he made it. Escaped that bed. that fate. and here we are - in Juneau.
My father came out of hospital with diabetes, his belt taken in 3 notches. Even his skin was 2 sizes too big. In rehab his ingrained stubbornness was for the first time interpreted as class. as quiet determination, something to be admired.”
Ken is quite frail now and finds it hard to be reminded by his son about medications, and such, but he is gradually accepting that they are on the same side. He now wants to fulfil a promise he made to his own father and grandfather.
Ken and Tim have travelled with others in their family on a tourist boat up the Gastineau Channel to Juneau, Alaska, to search for a lost ancestor. Ken’s great-uncle, his grandfather’s brother. (I think I got the relationships right.) He had fled England in the late 1800s and got to Juneau, Alaska, where he was hospitalised.
Men (mostly men) went north to Juneau following the Gold Rush, and it appears that’s where Thomas Chandler went. He wrote to his family back in England, saying how ill he was in hospital, but that was all they knew.
Ken’s father (Tim’s grandfather) had promised to try to find him, and Ken, in turn, promised also. The last date they had was 1892.
This is a wonderful story, well narrated by William McInnes, a well-known Aussie actor. Nick Earls has a knack for showing men dealing with each other about sensitive subjects when they don’t know quite what to say.
A nice surprise near the end was the reference to a giant, who could only be the main character in Vancouver, the previous story.
I loved it! The individual stories are free for Audible members, and the collection is available to buy. I haven’t heard the last one yet, but so far, so good.
I have become a fan of this Aussie author.
My reviews of the series:
My review of Gotham- Wisdom Tree #1
My review of Venice-Wisdom Tree #2
My review of Vancouver- Wisdom Tree #3
My review of Juneau- Wisdom Tree #4
My review of NoHo- Wisdom Tree #5
“For him, any conversation is a chance to know more than someone else to make a point of it. He's worse under stress.”
Tim’s father Ken, has been a professor who is used to being listened to. Tim recognises the look on his dad’s face, or a finger ready to point for emphasis, and he knows to keep quiet.
When his dad became ill and was expected to die, Tim found a different understanding of fathers and sons and what his father meant to him.
“But he made it. Escaped that bed. that fate. and here we are - in Juneau.
My father came out of hospital with diabetes, his belt taken in 3 notches. Even his skin was 2 sizes too big. In rehab his ingrained stubbornness was for the first time interpreted as class. as quiet determination, something to be admired.”
Ken is quite frail now and finds it hard to be reminded by his son about medications, and such, but he is gradually accepting that they are on the same side. He now wants to fulfil a promise he made to his own father and grandfather.
Ken and Tim have travelled with others in their family on a tourist boat up the Gastineau Channel to Juneau, Alaska, to search for a lost ancestor. Ken’s great-uncle, his grandfather’s brother. (I think I got the relationships right.) He had fled England in the late 1800s and got to Juneau, Alaska, where he was hospitalised.
Men (mostly men) went north to Juneau following the Gold Rush, and it appears that’s where Thomas Chandler went. He wrote to his family back in England, saying how ill he was in hospital, but that was all they knew.
Ken’s father (Tim’s grandfather) had promised to try to find him, and Ken, in turn, promised also. The last date they had was 1892.
This is a wonderful story, well narrated by William McInnes, a well-known Aussie actor. Nick Earls has a knack for showing men dealing with each other about sensitive subjects when they don’t know quite what to say.
A nice surprise near the end was the reference to a giant, who could only be the main character in Vancouver, the previous story.
I loved it! The individual stories are free for Audible members, and the collection is available to buy. I haven’t heard the last one yet, but so far, so good.
I have become a fan of this Aussie author.
My reviews of the series:
My review of Gotham- Wisdom Tree #1
My review of Venice-Wisdom Tree #2
My review of Vancouver- Wisdom Tree #3
My review of Juneau- Wisdom Tree #4
My review of NoHo- Wisdom Tree #5
August 9, 2016
I need to stop reading these books. For one thing, they completely undo me, emotionally. For another ... like, why do I even bother writing? They are amazing. Read them, people. Do.
January 27, 2025
Well, there's a lesson. I nearly skipped this 4th audionovella in the Wisdom Tree collection, purely on the basis of the narrator (an actor, whose work tends to rub me the wrong way). But I decided to give it a try, and it turned out to be my favourite so far!
At first it was because I could relate so well to Tim, a son who frets about the frailty of his surviving parent, Ken, while at the same time trying to bury the little frustrations that arise from mundane daily interactions. But then as the details of Ken's quest became clearer, the story took a turn that was both familiar at a broader level and heartbreaking in the detail.
Wonderful storytelling. Currently free on Audible.
At first it was because I could relate so well to Tim, a son who frets about the frailty of his surviving parent, Ken, while at the same time trying to bury the little frustrations that arise from mundane daily interactions. But then as the details of Ken's quest became clearer, the story took a turn that was both familiar at a broader level and heartbreaking in the detail.
Wonderful storytelling. Currently free on Audible.
August 5, 2016
Well, he's done it again. I can't decide which is my favourite so far - Juneau or Gotham. But there is something special about this novella about the capital of Alaska, Nick Earls' fourth in the Wisdom Tree series of five. At the heart of the story is a mystery - an elderly man (Ken) searching for connection with a long dead ancestor who perhaps washed up in the wild frontier that was Alaska in the late 1800's. It's important to Ken (the father of the narrator, Tim) that his relative's memory is put to rest. The township of Juneau, both the historical relics and the modern touches, is depicted in great detail; we feel we are walking the same streets as the characters, entering the same buildings, viewing the same old documents and artefacts. The generality of genealogy is reduced through the prism of time, distance and research into the specifics of family, the commonality of feeling, the warm familiarity of connection. A lovely, gentle book that gives us much to ponder.
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December 2, 2016If ever there was a series of novellas to take your breath away the one going under the collective names of the Wisdom Tree by Nick Earls is it. Juneau is the fourth in the series and is about a man taking a journey with his father to discover a part of their family history. Wonderful, sensitive observations about father and son relationships, and the importance, or not, that we place on family genealogy. Writing at its best. Do yourself a favour and buy the entire series - you'll want to keep them to read again.
April 2, 2024
A compact book with a much larger theme.This is the fourth nouvella in a series of five, the collection is entitled The WisdomTree. I found the writing quite subtle and unrushed but always hinting at something more. This novella follows an elderly man and his son Tim ss they try to trace the life journey of a past relative. Ken is on a mission to fulfill a promise he made to his grandfather as a young boy to find their long lost relative. It's an interesting look into how family is connected and how just one moment within our life can change the way we view things.
July 31, 2017
And soon after that, Hope says, I'm sorry to say, the story ends.
February 6, 2017
Another beautifully written novella in the Wisdom Tree series. With his usual delicate, subtle touch, Nick Earls explores the shifting undertones and nuances of relationships. It's the story of Ken, an elderly widower, on holiday on an Alaskan cruise with his adult son Tim and family. Ken wants to piece together the story of his great uncle Thomas who ran away to Juneau as a young man and was never heard of again. With the help of the museum curator at Juneau, the moving story of Thomas, his battle with his mental health and his short-lived happiness with a local doctor unfolds and both Ken and Tim, and their relationship are changed by it.
A short but memorable read.
A short but memorable read.
October 6, 2016
Book Four of the Wisdom Tree series surrounds a mystery – an elderly man searching for connection to a long-ago-passed ancestor in the Alaska. The description of the Alaskan town Juneau is appealing in its small details of observation from narrator Tim (Ken’s son) and his passages about his father are touching.
November 4, 2016
I really have enjoyed The Wisdom Tree series; they are each so pinned in the 'now' of our world. Even 'Juneau', backboned with a search for the solution to an old family mystery. I've now read all five in the series, slightly out of order, and will have to buy my own copies to read again - Earle's gentle savagery warrants repeat reading.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews