a secret burial

by penelope sell

An acute and powerful picture of small-town life, and a young girl with a terrible secret.'I need some help digging a grave. It's Mum.'Elise is nearly 16 when one hot, dry day her mother dies. She knows that if the authorities find out, she and her younger brother, Jeremy, will be separated and taken into care. Jeremy is all she has. Jeremy and Isaac, the shaggy, taciturn recluse who lives on the hill, and Ron, the neighbour with the runaway wife and sinister eyes.As she papers over her mother's absences for the town busybodies, Elise wonders how she can keep up the pretence, and what compromises she is making for her own future. It could all go on indefinitely - the deception, the growing tension between her and her brother, the uncertainty. But then a young man, a stranger, comes to town, and then the rains come, and everything changes.Penelope Sell paints a picture of the secrets of small-town life, of long-ago events that reach down into the present, and a young woman determined to find her own path in life. Eloquent and moving, this novel announces the arrival of a significant new talent.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stumbled across this book, sounded interesting. Good story line descriptions made you feel like you were there with the characters

[S'hi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bookends of this story are the burial and exhumation of the central character's mother. With a brief mention of Romeo and Juliet by her teacher, this coming of age novel plays down the dramas we may be expected to comprehend in school to face the drama and reality happening in actual life. The sense of permission to act and awakening to effective decisions and action is very carefully navigated. Cliches are avoided. Even the Bible quotes are unusual ones, with slipstreams of familiar scenery rather than lingering on false interpretations or arguments. The best guidance seems to come from a minimum of words, but room for self-awareness to arise to meet those prepared to witness it. A very satisfying first novel. Now to see how the writer's career has developed since winning a Varuna Award to develop this from manuscript.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astounding read. Poignant, relevant and real. The writer weaves a heart-wrenching story of vividly real characters amid glorious descriptions of Australian rural countryside. The flood narrative tells of a community pulling together in harrowing adversity in a land plagued by drought and flood. Poverty is real here. Domestic violence doesn't pull its punches. And yet, there is compassion, and kindness, and hope.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published 2003 : "The Secret Burial" deals with the brutal coming of age of fifteen-year-old Elise. The setting is a harsh, drought-stricken rural environment where people, fauna and the environment are barely surviving. Elise is catapulted into adulthood by the accidental death of her alcoholic mother, Lizzie, who electrocutes herself when drunkenly trying to repair the washing machine. Afraid that she and her younger brother, Jeremy, will be separated, Elise asks her old neighbour, Isaac, to help her bury her mother and tell no one.