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Stone Sky Gold Mountain
Family circumstances force siblings Ying and Lai Yue to flee their home in China to seek their fortunes in Australia. Life on the gold fields is hard, and they soon abandon the diggings and head to nearby Maytown. Once there, Lai Yue finds a job as a carrier on an overland expedition, while Ying finds work in a local store and strikes up a friendship with Meriem, a young white woman with her own troubled past. When a serious crime is committed, suspicion falls on all those who are considered outsiders.
Evoking the rich, unfolding tapestry of Australian life in the late nineteenth century, Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a heartbreaking and universal story about the exiled and displaced, about those who encounter discrimination yet yearn for acceptance.
Evoking the rich, unfolding tapestry of Australian life in the late nineteenth century, Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a heartbreaking and universal story about the exiled and displaced, about those who encounter discrimination yet yearn for acceptance.
264 pages, Paperback
First published March 31, 2020
51 people are currently reading
1139 people want to read
About the author
Mirandi Riwoe
8 books49 followersMirandi Riwoe is a Brisbane-based writer. She has been shortlisted for Overland's Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, the Josephine Ulrick Short Story Prize and the Luke Bitmead Bursary. She has also been longlisted for the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and CWA (UK) dagger awards. Her work has appeared in Review of Australian Fiction, Rex, Peril and Shibboleth and Other Stories. Her first novel, She be Damned, will be released by Legend Press (UK) in 2017. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies (QUT).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
July 19, 2020
Ying awakens to the sound of pickaxes chipping away at rock. She holds her eyes shut, trying to hold on to the dream she was having. However, it slips her grasp, just like the brother she was dreaming about. She wonders where her brother is.
The year is 1877, the gold rush era, and Ying opens the flap of the tent to the shanty town that has sprung up beside the Palmer River in Queensland. A shanty town, one of many that house those who come from all over the globe to strike it rich.
Ying and her brother, Lai Yui, are two of three protagonists that the narrative centres around.
The third is Meriem, a “fallen lady”, shunned from society, who works as a maid for a prostitute named Sophia.
Ying and her brother have come to Australia, to find gold, not for personal wealth, but to try to make enough money to buy their younger siblings back, siblings who have been sold into slavery over their father’s debts.
The narrative is told from the perspectives of these three characters, with the changes happening between chapters. All characters are interesting to read, and all are struggling in some way, all struggling with personal demons.
For obvious reasons, Ying must hide her gender and pretend to be a boy. The rough male dominated goldfields a dangerous place for a young girl. She pines for her siblings and home.
Lai Yui, lives with crippling guilt. Guilt over his siblings, and guilt over his dead fiancée, who talks to him throughout the novel, giving advice, but mostly criticizing and admonishing. He feels it is his fault for his family’s predicament.
Riwoe paints us the picture of the hardships of this life, with some beautifully descriptive writing. Harsh environments, lack of food, racism and ill treatment towards the Chinese and non-white workers, something as simple as the difficulty of communication can result in dire ramifications.
The aboriginals are depicted as “darkies”. Savages, little more than animals, which is how they would have been perceived by the protagonists and the white people in this era. Again, we are reminded of the atrocities that took place in our past.
Ying and Lai Yui, eventually get separated, with Lai Yui having to move to a sheep station for work, while Ying stays at the town and works in the local shop. It is at this stage that narratives of Ying and Miriem will join and the two will become fast friends. Craving each other’s company, the desire becoming stronger with each passing day.
The novel starts slowly but all three narratives slowly ratchet up in intensity, leading to exciting climaxes, and a wonderfully satisfying ending.
Beautifully written and an engrossing story that keeps you enthralled to the last page. 4 stars.
The year is 1877, the gold rush era, and Ying opens the flap of the tent to the shanty town that has sprung up beside the Palmer River in Queensland. A shanty town, one of many that house those who come from all over the globe to strike it rich.
Ying and her brother, Lai Yui, are two of three protagonists that the narrative centres around.
The third is Meriem, a “fallen lady”, shunned from society, who works as a maid for a prostitute named Sophia.
Ying and her brother have come to Australia, to find gold, not for personal wealth, but to try to make enough money to buy their younger siblings back, siblings who have been sold into slavery over their father’s debts.
The narrative is told from the perspectives of these three characters, with the changes happening between chapters. All characters are interesting to read, and all are struggling in some way, all struggling with personal demons.
For obvious reasons, Ying must hide her gender and pretend to be a boy. The rough male dominated goldfields a dangerous place for a young girl. She pines for her siblings and home.
Lai Yui, lives with crippling guilt. Guilt over his siblings, and guilt over his dead fiancée, who talks to him throughout the novel, giving advice, but mostly criticizing and admonishing. He feels it is his fault for his family’s predicament.
Riwoe paints us the picture of the hardships of this life, with some beautifully descriptive writing. Harsh environments, lack of food, racism and ill treatment towards the Chinese and non-white workers, something as simple as the difficulty of communication can result in dire ramifications.
The aboriginals are depicted as “darkies”. Savages, little more than animals, which is how they would have been perceived by the protagonists and the white people in this era. Again, we are reminded of the atrocities that took place in our past.
Ying and Lai Yui, eventually get separated, with Lai Yui having to move to a sheep station for work, while Ying stays at the town and works in the local shop. It is at this stage that narratives of Ying and Miriem will join and the two will become fast friends. Craving each other’s company, the desire becoming stronger with each passing day.
The novel starts slowly but all three narratives slowly ratchet up in intensity, leading to exciting climaxes, and a wonderfully satisfying ending.
Beautifully written and an engrossing story that keeps you enthralled to the last page. 4 stars.
March 18, 2020
Stone Sky Gold Mountain (UQP 2020) is the latest work by author Mirandi Riwoe, whose stunning novella The Fish Girl (shortlisted for The Stella Prize) subverted a traditional narrative in a retelling from the perspective of a character normally silenced. In her new novel, Riwoe again focuses on the stories of those who historically have not had their voices heard in the dominant narrative. The result is a well-crafted, beautifully written, character-driven story that immerses us deep into Australia of another era and acquaints us intimately with those the history books have largely ignored, or who have otherwise been written as tired tropes or stereotypes.
Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a literary novel: every sentence sings from the page; the imagery is evocative and lingering; the characters are dynamic and authentic; the landscape is rich and detailed and familiar; and Riwoe allows the reader space on the page, in between the words, to imagine what she has left absent. So many issues in this book – the loss of a child, the madness of grief, the weight of responsibility, the trauma of our indigenous people – are hinted at in subtle and tangential ways, so that we find ourselves reading perhaps only one simple line that stops us in our tracks and forces us to really think about what is not being said. The lives depicted and the history recounted make for thought-provoking and sometimes uncomfortable and confronting reading.
And yet despite its beautiful prose and tender themes, this book is also very accessible and readable. The story is well-paced and filled with tension and engaging sub-plots. Although set 150 years ago, the characters have a familiarity and resonance that is warm and compelling.
The book features three main characters, with rotating chapters from each of their perspectives. Set in 1877, Chinese siblings Ying and Lai Yue are forced to flee their homeland and travel to Australia during the Gold Rush to try to make their fortune and fulfil their familial obligations. But their dreams of wealth and success prove to be rather different to the tough life on the goldfields, and they must abandon their diggings and move to the small township of Maytown in northern Queensland. Ying finds a job with a local Chinese merchant, while Lai Yue becomes cook and carrier on an overland expedition. Each must face their own demons: Lai Yue wrestling with the ghosts of his past, and Ying forced to endure a fake identity to remain invisible in the town. The third main character, Meriem, is a young white woman with her own tragic past. She works as companion/housemaid with a local prostitute and seems forever doomed to remain on the bottom rung of the social ladder. When she and Ying become unlikely friends, they both reconsider their ambitions and hopes.
A serious assault is committed in Maytown, and suspicion naturally falls on anyone who is considered an outsider. Fears are heightened and threats are made as the local white thugs bully anyone who is not like them.
The themes in this novel run like deep seams of gold: the pain and loss of exile from your homeland and your family; the sense of exclusion from an unaccepting and intolerant society; the relief of the feeling of belonging and connection. The book unflinchingly explores difficult issues such as the discrimination of non-white migrants to this country, particularly the Chinese, and the horrific history of invasion, violent massacres, stolen land and the disrespect of Australia’s first peoples. But all of this is handled with such a light touch. At the very beginning of the novel, Ying is bemoaning the fact that the local river is no longer home to the number of fish that she has heard were prevalent years earlier; as she senses a ‘dark figure shift in the shadows of the gums’, she wonders if ‘they miss their fish’. These small yet telling moments of insight into what the indigenous population has lost, or what has been taken from them, are poignant, especially when they come from an ethnic group that is itself discriminated against.
Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a complex web of complicated interpersonal relationships, each with their own obligations, loyalties, demands, pressures and rewards. We are drawn intimately into the emotions and feelings of these characters, and their motivations and behaviour seem entirely comprehensible. Riwoe demonstrates an astute sensitivity to the nuanced roles of the various people or groups in that era and enables us to see from their perspectives. The assault of colonisation is butted up against the rigidity of racism. In the epithet, Riwoe quotes Jan Chin in a letter to his father in 1858: ‘I wish to inform you that they are only strangers in this land themselves. Many of them have only been here a few moons, and none for more than one or two generations.’ It must have been very strange indeed for Chinese people – with their rich and ancient history – to understand the attitudes of white people (then resident in Australia for a handful of years) towards our indigenous people who had, like the Chinese, lived in a stable and unbroken civilisation for generations. The whites did not like the Aboriginal people they were trying to displace, nor the Chinese people they failed to welcome. The irony is not lost in this story.
Readers will become very attached and connected to Ying, Lai Yue and Meriem, and increasingly concerned for their fates as the novel picks up pace towards its conclusion. Each are facing challenging circumstances … how will each of them respond?
Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a literary novel: every sentence sings from the page; the imagery is evocative and lingering; the characters are dynamic and authentic; the landscape is rich and detailed and familiar; and Riwoe allows the reader space on the page, in between the words, to imagine what she has left absent. So many issues in this book – the loss of a child, the madness of grief, the weight of responsibility, the trauma of our indigenous people – are hinted at in subtle and tangential ways, so that we find ourselves reading perhaps only one simple line that stops us in our tracks and forces us to really think about what is not being said. The lives depicted and the history recounted make for thought-provoking and sometimes uncomfortable and confronting reading.
And yet despite its beautiful prose and tender themes, this book is also very accessible and readable. The story is well-paced and filled with tension and engaging sub-plots. Although set 150 years ago, the characters have a familiarity and resonance that is warm and compelling.
The book features three main characters, with rotating chapters from each of their perspectives. Set in 1877, Chinese siblings Ying and Lai Yue are forced to flee their homeland and travel to Australia during the Gold Rush to try to make their fortune and fulfil their familial obligations. But their dreams of wealth and success prove to be rather different to the tough life on the goldfields, and they must abandon their diggings and move to the small township of Maytown in northern Queensland. Ying finds a job with a local Chinese merchant, while Lai Yue becomes cook and carrier on an overland expedition. Each must face their own demons: Lai Yue wrestling with the ghosts of his past, and Ying forced to endure a fake identity to remain invisible in the town. The third main character, Meriem, is a young white woman with her own tragic past. She works as companion/housemaid with a local prostitute and seems forever doomed to remain on the bottom rung of the social ladder. When she and Ying become unlikely friends, they both reconsider their ambitions and hopes.
A serious assault is committed in Maytown, and suspicion naturally falls on anyone who is considered an outsider. Fears are heightened and threats are made as the local white thugs bully anyone who is not like them.
The themes in this novel run like deep seams of gold: the pain and loss of exile from your homeland and your family; the sense of exclusion from an unaccepting and intolerant society; the relief of the feeling of belonging and connection. The book unflinchingly explores difficult issues such as the discrimination of non-white migrants to this country, particularly the Chinese, and the horrific history of invasion, violent massacres, stolen land and the disrespect of Australia’s first peoples. But all of this is handled with such a light touch. At the very beginning of the novel, Ying is bemoaning the fact that the local river is no longer home to the number of fish that she has heard were prevalent years earlier; as she senses a ‘dark figure shift in the shadows of the gums’, she wonders if ‘they miss their fish’. These small yet telling moments of insight into what the indigenous population has lost, or what has been taken from them, are poignant, especially when they come from an ethnic group that is itself discriminated against.
Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a complex web of complicated interpersonal relationships, each with their own obligations, loyalties, demands, pressures and rewards. We are drawn intimately into the emotions and feelings of these characters, and their motivations and behaviour seem entirely comprehensible. Riwoe demonstrates an astute sensitivity to the nuanced roles of the various people or groups in that era and enables us to see from their perspectives. The assault of colonisation is butted up against the rigidity of racism. In the epithet, Riwoe quotes Jan Chin in a letter to his father in 1858: ‘I wish to inform you that they are only strangers in this land themselves. Many of them have only been here a few moons, and none for more than one or two generations.’ It must have been very strange indeed for Chinese people – with their rich and ancient history – to understand the attitudes of white people (then resident in Australia for a handful of years) towards our indigenous people who had, like the Chinese, lived in a stable and unbroken civilisation for generations. The whites did not like the Aboriginal people they were trying to displace, nor the Chinese people they failed to welcome. The irony is not lost in this story.
Readers will become very attached and connected to Ying, Lai Yue and Meriem, and increasingly concerned for their fates as the novel picks up pace towards its conclusion. Each are facing challenging circumstances … how will each of them respond?
April 10, 2020
This is a wonderful novel that focuses on the experience of the Chinese community in the gold rush of in Far North Queensland in the late 19th century. The writing is beautiful, the plot surprisingly pacy and the characters beautifully drawn - Riwoe is a really great writer and she's done such a lovely job of exploring big questions of identity, belonging, gender, racism and migration inside a smart, entertaining, sad book. Funny to read this right after It's Raining in Mango, which is set (at least initially) in the same goldfields.
April 4, 2021
The setting for this work of historical fiction is the remote Palmer River region of Cape York Peninsula, Far North Queensland. Gold was discovered in the area in 1873 and by 1877 more than 20,000 diggers have moved into the rugged bush in pursuit of gold. This major gold rush has attracted people from all over Australia and from overseas, including the Chinese, all seeking to make their fortune and escape poverty at home. Conditions are primitive, the weather is terrible, and the authorities are taxing. Both European and Chinese miners despise the local Aboriginal people, whose country has been invaded and desecrated.
There are three main characters in this novel, all young people. Ying is a teenaged girl disguised as a boy so she can work with her brother, Lai Yue, both enslaved to the Sip Yee tong, or syndicate. Lai Yue has primary responsibility for making enough money from the gold diggings to repay the debts accumulated by his late father. Lai Yue’s betrothed, Shan, was killed in a landslide, but her soul could not be laid to rest in the customary Chinese way. He believes she is with him in spirit in Australia, haunting him and undermining his hopes.
Meriem Hartley, from Queanbeyan, works as domestic help to Sophie, a popular prostitute who provides sexual services to both European and Chinese men in the goldfields settlement of Maytown. Young, naïve Meriem is a ‘fallen woman’, having borne a child out of wedlock, and is shunned by many in the frontier community. She has found her way to the goldfields to make money so that she can reclaim her respectability and build a new life.
The harsh life of the goldfields is vividly portrayed in this novel – the dirt and decay, the alcohol-fueled violence, the brutal treatment of the underprivileged. Indentured labourers like Ying and Lai Yue live in desperate poverty, surviving in squalid shelters, with barely enough food to stay alive, exploited by the better-off, both Chinese and European. Europeans regard both Chinese and indigenous as inferior, while the Chinese, too, look down on and fear the aborigines. Injustices both petty and major are meted out by the authorities and by those who ignore the Law.
While working in the township, Meriem and Ying strike up an unexpected friendship. Like all the townsfolk, Meriem is not aware that Ying is a girl. Stuck out at the diggings, in appallingly deprived circumstances, Lai Yue is recruited to be the cook to a group of Europeans traveling across country to a remote pastoral station. Though reluctant to leave Ying, he takes on the challenge because of his desperation to make money and return home to his mother in China.
The novel follows the individual fate of each of these three main characters. Along the way we meet some kindly Chinese, some depraved white men, some “good Christians” and many characters simply battling to survive and to fulfil their dreams.
Mirandi Riwoe’s writing is both stylish and accessible. She shines a light on an area of Australian history which is not well-known. In particular I appreciated the Chinese perspective on life in the 19th century gold rush period. For me this book is a fine example of historical fiction, because I learnt something new while enjoying a good story.
There are three main characters in this novel, all young people. Ying is a teenaged girl disguised as a boy so she can work with her brother, Lai Yue, both enslaved to the Sip Yee tong, or syndicate. Lai Yue has primary responsibility for making enough money from the gold diggings to repay the debts accumulated by his late father. Lai Yue’s betrothed, Shan, was killed in a landslide, but her soul could not be laid to rest in the customary Chinese way. He believes she is with him in spirit in Australia, haunting him and undermining his hopes.
Meriem Hartley, from Queanbeyan, works as domestic help to Sophie, a popular prostitute who provides sexual services to both European and Chinese men in the goldfields settlement of Maytown. Young, naïve Meriem is a ‘fallen woman’, having borne a child out of wedlock, and is shunned by many in the frontier community. She has found her way to the goldfields to make money so that she can reclaim her respectability and build a new life.
The harsh life of the goldfields is vividly portrayed in this novel – the dirt and decay, the alcohol-fueled violence, the brutal treatment of the underprivileged. Indentured labourers like Ying and Lai Yue live in desperate poverty, surviving in squalid shelters, with barely enough food to stay alive, exploited by the better-off, both Chinese and European. Europeans regard both Chinese and indigenous as inferior, while the Chinese, too, look down on and fear the aborigines. Injustices both petty and major are meted out by the authorities and by those who ignore the Law.
While working in the township, Meriem and Ying strike up an unexpected friendship. Like all the townsfolk, Meriem is not aware that Ying is a girl. Stuck out at the diggings, in appallingly deprived circumstances, Lai Yue is recruited to be the cook to a group of Europeans traveling across country to a remote pastoral station. Though reluctant to leave Ying, he takes on the challenge because of his desperation to make money and return home to his mother in China.
The novel follows the individual fate of each of these three main characters. Along the way we meet some kindly Chinese, some depraved white men, some “good Christians” and many characters simply battling to survive and to fulfil their dreams.
Mirandi Riwoe’s writing is both stylish and accessible. She shines a light on an area of Australian history which is not well-known. In particular I appreciated the Chinese perspective on life in the 19th century gold rush period. For me this book is a fine example of historical fiction, because I learnt something new while enjoying a good story.
September 8, 2020
This book is in such rich and deep conversation with HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD that I assume all writers festivals will programme Zhang and Riwoe together from here on out. Both are initially set on the goldfields (of Queensland and California respectively) and each features Chinese brother/sister protagnoists with the sister dressing and acting to pass as a boy. The siblings are forced to leave the goldfields and embark on a journey of survival in a quest for belonging. Not to mention their crossed mythologies. Both books are superbly written and deeply moving and my reading experience is richer for having read (and loved) them both.
September 15, 2020
The author seems to have a thing about depicting minorities in a place that doesn't want them. In her latest book, Riwoe gives us two Chinese siblings in a far north Queensland gold town sometime in the mid to late 1800s. Life is tough with white racism, Chinese gangs, slim pickings, lure of opium and gambling, heat, poor food and no friends. Even tougher when one of the siblings is a girl disguised as a young man as Chinese women are not allowed.
It's not a long book and like the diggers it scratches the surface of the various issues while tempting one to want more.
There are few novels telling the story of the Chinese on the Australian goldfields and this one makes it mark.
It's not a long book and like the diggers it scratches the surface of the various issues while tempting one to want more.
There are few novels telling the story of the Chinese on the Australian goldfields and this one makes it mark.
April 13, 2020
Stone Sky Gold Mountain is an unforgettable story, gentle in its brutality as it inches closer to its tragic inevitability. It is a study of prejudice, displacement, racism, and misogyny. You really didn’t want to be anything other than a white man in 19th century Australia.
It is so beautifully written, evocative and lyrical, yet entirely easy to slip into and get lost in.
‘And in the dim hut, his thoughts shatter like porcelain – crumbling fragments of confusion, shards of lucidity. The pieces shift and tremble in the cavity of his skull. Some come together, neat, with only tell-tale fissures in the glaze, but mostly they float in the air, broken.’
Deeply atmospheric, the setting and era is conjured through the narrative vividly and consistently. There is no mistaking the location within this novel, and anyone who has lived in central and north Queensland will relate to the sense of cloying and oppressive heat that lifts from the pages of this story; the depiction of the unrelenting buzz of flies and the aggressive way they pursue you in a bid to locate the slightest bit of moisture. I can’t even begin to comprehend, from my air-conditioned and fully screened house, how unbelievably hard it would have been to live each day with no reprieve from the elements.
‘She stirs her soup, closing her eyes to banish thoughts of grey-shirt. She doesn’t want her enjoyment of the meal to be tarnished. She carries her stool outside and settles down to watch the last of the sun sink beyond a rise of grass as dry as wheat, punctuated by clumps of bright green foliage. Before eating, though, she sifts the soup for flies that might have fallen into its depths, stunned by its heady steam; searches for tell-tale wings or the crooked leg of a roach. Thinking of how her mother would scold her for being so fussy. She gulps down five burning mouthfuls before looking up again.’
There is so much sadness and injustice throughout this novel but it bears this weight lightly. It’s a truthful read, but not a depressing one. Literary historical fiction is my absolute favourite to read, so I feel as though this novel was, for me, made to measure. Needless to say, I highly recommend it and hope to see it listed for future literary prizes.
‘Sunset casts its dreary gloom through the doorway, lingering over their meagre belongings, before slowly withdrawing, inch by dark inch until Meriem lights the two lamps.’
Thanks is extended to UQP for providing me with a copy of Stone Sky Gold Mountain for review.
It is so beautifully written, evocative and lyrical, yet entirely easy to slip into and get lost in.
‘And in the dim hut, his thoughts shatter like porcelain – crumbling fragments of confusion, shards of lucidity. The pieces shift and tremble in the cavity of his skull. Some come together, neat, with only tell-tale fissures in the glaze, but mostly they float in the air, broken.’
Deeply atmospheric, the setting and era is conjured through the narrative vividly and consistently. There is no mistaking the location within this novel, and anyone who has lived in central and north Queensland will relate to the sense of cloying and oppressive heat that lifts from the pages of this story; the depiction of the unrelenting buzz of flies and the aggressive way they pursue you in a bid to locate the slightest bit of moisture. I can’t even begin to comprehend, from my air-conditioned and fully screened house, how unbelievably hard it would have been to live each day with no reprieve from the elements.
‘She stirs her soup, closing her eyes to banish thoughts of grey-shirt. She doesn’t want her enjoyment of the meal to be tarnished. She carries her stool outside and settles down to watch the last of the sun sink beyond a rise of grass as dry as wheat, punctuated by clumps of bright green foliage. Before eating, though, she sifts the soup for flies that might have fallen into its depths, stunned by its heady steam; searches for tell-tale wings or the crooked leg of a roach. Thinking of how her mother would scold her for being so fussy. She gulps down five burning mouthfuls before looking up again.’
There is so much sadness and injustice throughout this novel but it bears this weight lightly. It’s a truthful read, but not a depressing one. Literary historical fiction is my absolute favourite to read, so I feel as though this novel was, for me, made to measure. Needless to say, I highly recommend it and hope to see it listed for future literary prizes.
‘Sunset casts its dreary gloom through the doorway, lingering over their meagre belongings, before slowly withdrawing, inch by dark inch until Meriem lights the two lamps.’
Thanks is extended to UQP for providing me with a copy of Stone Sky Gold Mountain for review.
May 4, 2020
Ever since her extraordinary novella, The Fish Girl, I've been dying to see what Mirandi Riwoe did next. And Stone Sky Gold Mountain is everything I'd hoped for and more! A great story with strong moral and historical dimensions, it felt like a wholly original, daring engagement with a mostly-ignored part of the Australian Gold Rush narrative. Plus, it's bloody beautiful to read.
May 7, 2021
Such a great exploration of aspects of Australian colonial history that I have not seen included in Australian literature.
March 9, 2020
I'm not sure what to say about this novel. I wanted to like it, I really did. There was so much potential, but in the end it felt as if the tone was off, and that the story went nowhere. While I understand the racial slurs included were historically accurate, they felt forced and too frequent within the text, almost as if used as a heavy-handed prop to shock the reader; it might be an idea for the publisher to include a note about the 'historical language' at the start of the book as well -I've appreciated this with other novels I've recently read that includes similar words. The aspects of the story I really wanted Riwoe to explore were left in limbo, or wrapped up too quickly - perhaps another 50-75 pages would have addressed this, and left me thinking "What a gem", and opposed to "What a shame".
Please note I read a proof copy.
Please note I read a proof copy.
November 17, 2020
A quick, easy read set in the QLD goldfields in 1870s. The focus is chinese white tensions, but also includes women and the native people. Life is a harsh struggle for all. The overly descriptive language and the use of present tense grated, and what's with sentences that aren't sentences? This novel was awarded the Inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize 2020. You'll have to read it to decide if you agree with the judges!! Enjoyable and interesting, but only 3 and a half stars from me. https://hnsa.org.au/ara-historical-no...
March 15, 2021
Mirandi Riwoe is a masters graduate in creative writing and it shows. Stone Sky Gold Moutain is a masterpiece of flowery writing that gives the reader a good feeling of the sultry conditions, we assume around Palmer River in the late 1800's, with two intersecting stories, one from Chinese immigrant perspective and one from Caucasian locals.
The problem, however, is the difficulty that poses for the reader trying to discern the plot.
The problem, however, is the difficulty that poses for the reader trying to discern the plot.
April 25, 2021
I felt this was a rather glossed over and shallow account of the Chinese experience in colonial Australia without real depth or understanding of 19th century Chinese immigrants and the tumultuous China they left behind. This book felt very white washed to me.
February 9, 2022
While this was a beautifully written book about a people in time that are rarely a focus of Australian literature but I ultimately came away feeling very unsatisfied with this read. That might have been the point of it all but it bothers me more than to making an impact really.
I found Lai Yue's entire narrative to be super frustrating. For all this supposed goals and aims, his actions really were the opposite of what he should have, obviously, been doing. The descent of his story was deeply saddening.
Mei Ying, however, was fascinating, along with Meriem and yet I felt that neither of these characters, by far the strongest characters in the book, were really fleshed out enough. Jimmy and Ah Kee, though supporting characters, were also fascinating yet shallowly portrayed.
The author does an excellent job of setting the scene, and with little exposition explains the board strokes of the time. The poverty, prejudice and violence. Clem is an accurate cypher for colonial violence, racism and sexism. His horrific misdeeds swept away and willing covered up by an aiding police officer. A narrative still relevant today, especially in cases of domestic violence.
Mostly, I am disappointed by what this could have been or maybe, what I expected it to be, when really it only hints at that. It's neither strong as a character driven story nor as a metaphor for how a colonial history that shaped a nation that continues to refuse to acknowledge the truth of its history as opposed to a deeply rose tinted and romanticised myth.
I found Lai Yue's entire narrative to be super frustrating. For all this supposed goals and aims, his actions really were the opposite of what he should have, obviously, been doing. The descent of his story was deeply saddening.
Mei Ying, however, was fascinating, along with Meriem and yet I felt that neither of these characters, by far the strongest characters in the book, were really fleshed out enough. Jimmy and Ah Kee, though supporting characters, were also fascinating yet shallowly portrayed.
The author does an excellent job of setting the scene, and with little exposition explains the board strokes of the time. The poverty, prejudice and violence. Clem is an accurate cypher for colonial violence, racism and sexism. His horrific misdeeds swept away and willing covered up by an aiding police officer. A narrative still relevant today, especially in cases of domestic violence.
Mostly, I am disappointed by what this could have been or maybe, what I expected it to be, when really it only hints at that. It's neither strong as a character driven story nor as a metaphor for how a colonial history that shaped a nation that continues to refuse to acknowledge the truth of its history as opposed to a deeply rose tinted and romanticised myth.
July 21, 2020
Family histories and loyalties, the Chinese immigrant experience and a vivid, disturbing depiction of life on the goldfields of 1870s Australia are skilfully and gracefully presented in Mirandi Riwoe's second work of literary fiction,
Stone Sky Gold Mountain
. I was keen to read the novel after listening to Mirandi's interview with Claire Nichols on Radio National's
The Book Show
and delighted to find it first go on the Indyreads app - serendipity! The Australian setting and the recounting of the trials and tribulations of the women, the indigenous population and the Australian workers as well as the Chinese miners, were the highlights of the story and reading the novel was a pleasure from beginning to end.
January 15, 2021
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe. A gold rush story set on the Palmer River in Queensland (an area I did not realise even had a gold rush!) through the eyes of Chinese settlers, sounded intriguing. However, I struggle with blokey books about blokey men doing blokey stuff in the wild – which gold rush/pioneer books can often be – so I tempered my intrigue.
In a number of interviews, Riwoe mentions that she writes of things that move her.
Naturally, they end up moving her readers too. In fact, her characters get under your skin and become a part of your daily life. You feel like you have inhabited their world. You think about them between reading sessions. You fear for their safety and sanity. You feel their pain and trepidation. You feel their disconnection and isolation.
Far North Queensland becomes a character too. You could feel the heat, the humidity, the dust and dirt, the unrelenting nature of nature.
During Riwoe’s research for this novel, she discovered that Cooktown and the Palmer River area, during the goldrush era, actually had a population that was significantly more Chinese than Anglo. Yet our settler narrative only ever talks about white people exploring and moving into the area. This was the trigger for her story.
Full response here: https://bronasbooks.com/2020/11/09/st...
In a number of interviews, Riwoe mentions that she writes of things that move her.
Naturally, they end up moving her readers too. In fact, her characters get under your skin and become a part of your daily life. You feel like you have inhabited their world. You think about them between reading sessions. You fear for their safety and sanity. You feel their pain and trepidation. You feel their disconnection and isolation.
Far North Queensland becomes a character too. You could feel the heat, the humidity, the dust and dirt, the unrelenting nature of nature.
During Riwoe’s research for this novel, she discovered that Cooktown and the Palmer River area, during the goldrush era, actually had a population that was significantly more Chinese than Anglo. Yet our settler narrative only ever talks about white people exploring and moving into the area. This was the trigger for her story.
Full response here: https://bronasbooks.com/2020/11/09/st...
October 11, 2020
A slow story about a sister and a brother, with a setting neglected in historical fiction: Chinese life in early Australia.
The sister and the brother diverge into their own plots. I have to say I followed the sister with more enjoyment -- helped by a positivity to her story, while the brother's was fairly grim. Ying is also more admirable than her brother who succumbs to opium and theft from fellow Chinese. The shopkeeper Jimmy (Wui Hing) and his friend Ah Kee are very likeable characters who take on the care of Mei Ying, disguised as boy (just 'Ying') for safety on the goldfields and in their pit-stop towns.
I felt the heart of the book was Ying's secret friendship with the white woman Meriem, ostracised in the town as the servant of a sex worker. This becomes an incipient romance, but is nipped in the bud when Meriem's employer is violently assaulted. Blame deflects from the white man responsible, onto local Chinese.
A rather quiet book until its suspense around Sophie's assault. Lives follow their natural course, which risks a sense of meander but which I prefer to a contrived resolution. Even if I'm disappointed for Ying and Merri.
The sister and the brother diverge into their own plots. I have to say I followed the sister with more enjoyment -- helped by a positivity to her story, while the brother's was fairly grim. Ying is also more admirable than her brother who succumbs to opium and theft from fellow Chinese. The shopkeeper Jimmy (Wui Hing) and his friend Ah Kee are very likeable characters who take on the care of Mei Ying, disguised as boy (just 'Ying') for safety on the goldfields and in their pit-stop towns.
I felt the heart of the book was Ying's secret friendship with the white woman Meriem, ostracised in the town as the servant of a sex worker. This becomes an incipient romance, but is nipped in the bud when Meriem's employer is violently assaulted. Blame deflects from the white man responsible, onto local Chinese.
A rather quiet book until its suspense around Sophie's assault. Lives follow their natural course, which risks a sense of meander but which I prefer to a contrived resolution. Even if I'm disappointed for Ying and Merri.
August 21, 2022
Stone Sky Gold Mountain
by Mirandi Riwoe
A worthy entry into the spate of novels exploring long-overlooked elements of Australia's history. Focusing on the lives of indentured Chinese labourers in Far North Queensland in the late-nineteenth century, Riwoe explores issues of race and gender with poise.
While the characters are well-developed and a sense of place established, the conclusion appears abruptly, and one is left feeling somewhat underwhelmed by the lack of closure.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½
A worthy entry into the spate of novels exploring long-overlooked elements of Australia's history. Focusing on the lives of indentured Chinese labourers in Far North Queensland in the late-nineteenth century, Riwoe explores issues of race and gender with poise.
While the characters are well-developed and a sense of place established, the conclusion appears abruptly, and one is left feeling somewhat underwhelmed by the lack of closure.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½
April 11, 2020
This is a beautiful novel. Mirandi is elegant, and bold, and often shirks what you’d expect for something far deeper. I kept thinking I knew where things were heading but I found myself surprised, each time, with how event unfolded. It broke my heart indeed.
July 3, 2020
A very entertaining read. Set on the Queensland Palmer River goldfields in the late nineteenth century, it tells the story of three people - Ying, her brother Lai Yue, both from China, and Meriem, a young woman of Irish background. Their stories unfold, whether together or separated. They all have suffering in the past, and gold is supposed to bring their dreams into being. However there are many dangers, from shadowy indigenous figures to cultural beliefs and practices luring them on. Race and gender play big parts in this. It’s a beautifully written, evocative novel, I liked it a lot.
April 28, 2021
This was a very moving novel, set in the 1870s gold rush in North Queensland. In it, Riwoe gives a voice to those who have largely been forgotten by history - the Chinese miners who came to every gold rush in Australia. Many of them went on to settle here and become successful businessmen. I say 'men' because that is almost exclusively what they were.
In this novel, Riwoe creates two memorable characters, Lai Yue and his sister who dresses as a man and calls herself Ying. The hardships of climate and mining are exacerbated by racism. The only people considered 'lower' than the Chinese are the Indigenous people, who are killed indiscriminately.
Lai Yue and Ying are not the only outsiders. Working for one of the local town's prostitutes is Meriem, a woman who was banished by her family because of an unwanted pregnancy. Ying and Meriem form a secret but nurturing friendship that helps them survive. Lai Yue is not so fortunate. Taken along as a cook on a trip inland by a group of white men, he is increasingly haunted by his dead fiancée and the 'black bird' that he identifies with guilt and death.
The writing is sensitive - often harsh, often lyrical. Riwoe does not shy away from showing the cruelty of human nature but she also celebrates kindness. The observations of nature - trees, birds, heat and rain - are memorably specific. This novel was a worthy contender for the Stella Prize this year. I'm sorry it didn't win.
In this novel, Riwoe creates two memorable characters, Lai Yue and his sister who dresses as a man and calls herself Ying. The hardships of climate and mining are exacerbated by racism. The only people considered 'lower' than the Chinese are the Indigenous people, who are killed indiscriminately.
Lai Yue and Ying are not the only outsiders. Working for one of the local town's prostitutes is Meriem, a woman who was banished by her family because of an unwanted pregnancy. Ying and Meriem form a secret but nurturing friendship that helps them survive. Lai Yue is not so fortunate. Taken along as a cook on a trip inland by a group of white men, he is increasingly haunted by his dead fiancée and the 'black bird' that he identifies with guilt and death.
The writing is sensitive - often harsh, often lyrical. Riwoe does not shy away from showing the cruelty of human nature but she also celebrates kindness. The observations of nature - trees, birds, heat and rain - are memorably specific. This novel was a worthy contender for the Stella Prize this year. I'm sorry it didn't win.
July 19, 2020
I've been waiting to read a book from this point of view since my 1977, school excursion to the Chinese Cemetery in country Victorian Beechworth, a fine historic gold-mining town. Gold rushes always attracted large numbers of people and especially many came from Guangdong (Canton province) in China. The cemetery in Beechworth was so large, it made me wonder what those peoples experiences were and where we might read about it.
Finally, here we have a story that centres on Chinese narrating their experiences during the Australian goldrush.
This story is centred in far north Queensland, however, gold was mined during the peak of the goldrush in many places in Australia. On my Aunties rural property in NSW there are scratching from that era and gold had been found in the creek during that period. So the story feels familiar no matter the location.
Mirandi Riwoe's writing is beautiful even while describing harsh experiences.
I loved this story and don't think I should give too much away, because it's better to read it off the page.
One I may come back to, it could make a terrific audiobook if well narrated.
I think I liked this one better than How Much of These Hills is Gold, another good story that depicts a story on Chinese Gold miners in California.
A book I may add to my collection later but for now this one needs to be returned to the library, and to all the people who have reserved it to read.
Finally, here we have a story that centres on Chinese narrating their experiences during the Australian goldrush.
This story is centred in far north Queensland, however, gold was mined during the peak of the goldrush in many places in Australia. On my Aunties rural property in NSW there are scratching from that era and gold had been found in the creek during that period. So the story feels familiar no matter the location.
Mirandi Riwoe's writing is beautiful even while describing harsh experiences.
I loved this story and don't think I should give too much away, because it's better to read it off the page.
One I may come back to, it could make a terrific audiobook if well narrated.
I think I liked this one better than How Much of These Hills is Gold, another good story that depicts a story on Chinese Gold miners in California.
A book I may add to my collection later but for now this one needs to be returned to the library, and to all the people who have reserved it to read.
April 1, 2020
In this novel, Mirandi Riwoe has once again reminded me of why I love historical fiction - an opportunity to learn through story. This superbly crafted narrative gives a searing insight into the conditions and challenges of being an outsider, be it as an immigrant or social outcast, in a harsh colonial Australian gold rush town.
The central characters, brother and sister Lai Yue and Ying show an incredible devotion to each other and to returning home to China so they can find their younger siblings. As their journey splits in two, each becomes torn and at times tortured, by their individual secrets.
The prose in this novel carefully balances detailed description with deft and efficient prose. It was a joy to read, even though at times, the story was confronting. A gorgeous read that had me looking up all sorts of details in between chapters.
The central characters, brother and sister Lai Yue and Ying show an incredible devotion to each other and to returning home to China so they can find their younger siblings. As their journey splits in two, each becomes torn and at times tortured, by their individual secrets.
The prose in this novel carefully balances detailed description with deft and efficient prose. It was a joy to read, even though at times, the story was confronting. A gorgeous read that had me looking up all sorts of details in between chapters.
April 29, 2020
Fantastic book! Fascinating main characters lead the reader through a version of colonial Australian history rarely written about in fiction.
I found Stone Sky Gold Mountain to be a real page turner, with each of the individual voices being strongly independent while merging effortlessly to keep the plot moving along.
Really enjoyed this novel’s combination of visceral and poetic language, it was a joy to read.
I found Stone Sky Gold Mountain to be a real page turner, with each of the individual voices being strongly independent while merging effortlessly to keep the plot moving along.
Really enjoyed this novel’s combination of visceral and poetic language, it was a joy to read.
October 6, 2021
Mixed feelings about this book. I'm always a bit suspicious of authors who have done creative writing courses as so often it shows with over flowery attempts to win a prize. However I thought Mirandi's writing was one of the best things about this book and really captured conditions in the gold fields of tropical North Queensland. The plot was a little aimless and predictable at times and the ending rather abrupt and unsatisfactory. Overall an easy read but could have been so much more.
September 4, 2020
I would like Goodreads to have the possibility of half stars. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it's worth more than 3 stars, but perhaps not four.
It was refreshing to read a gold fields story from the point of view of Chinese immigrants and from less respected members of the community. The language was impressive and perceptive ingsights were made.
It was refreshing to read a gold fields story from the point of view of Chinese immigrants and from less respected members of the community. The language was impressive and perceptive ingsights were made.
December 28, 2020
This story is plausible and commendable because very little Australian historical fiction is written from an alternative non-British point of view and Mirandi Riwoe writes extremely well. Stone Sky Gold Mountain portrays the inevitable sadness, alienation, devastation and loss that many (Chinese immigrants) would have endured but also offers a positive outcome for the two main female characters.
Stone Sky Gold Mountain tells the story of Chinese migrants who came to Australia after the discovery of gold. Like all migrants most came willingly to earn money and live a better life because conditions in their home countries were unendurable, but being a migrant is not easy for anyone who is desperate and in Australia one hundred and forty years ago conditions were very harsh.
The novel reveals a great deal succinctly through the use of many short chapters which alternate with the different points of view of the main characters. Mei Ying and her brother Lai Yue, had arrived in the Queensland gold fields but quickly found out that life in Australia for Chinese people was not as comfortable as they had hoped. Nevertheless, they are determined to earn enough money to return to China in order to save their mother from destitution and rescue their two siblings who had been sold to pay for their family debt. Racism against the Chinese immigrants is so extensive that they are segregated from the rest of the community. Also, few Chinese speak English well if at all. The ‘white’ law makers do not protect the Chinese such as the two siblings who are easily taken advantage of by petty criminals who beat them to steal their tools. The two siblings struggle to make a living from looking for gold and move into the town after Mei becomes very ill and they lose more money paying for a doctor.
Apart from the bigotry and segregation, it is not a safe place for women so Mei Ying must pretend to be a boy and luckily is employed by a Chinese shop keeper. The Chinese are not faultless and steal from each other, succumb to frequenting gambling houses and opium dealers and become dependent on unscrupulous money lenders. The Chinese are easily blamed for every misdemeanour and accused of atrocities committed by any unruly prospectors and farm workers, reinforcing the prejudice in the community. This prejudice is against anyone who cannot speak English, anyone who is not white or from a country of the British empire, thus there is a pecking order from English, to European to people of colour, to Chinese and lastly Aboriginal (who are not recognised at all). The injustices against the original inhabitants are alluded to but the main characters are more troubled by the people with whom they associate with on a daily basis than to be concerned about the plight of the ‘natives’.
The bigotry is not just racist but extremely misogynist. Stone Sky Gold Mountain reveals the intolerable position that women found themselves in if they did not have a family or a husband to ‘protect’ them. Many a ‘fallen woman’, anyone having a child out-of-wedlock, was forced into prostitution, so Meriam banished by her family, was fortunate to earn a living as a housemaid for the independent Sophie. Still Meriam is ostracised by the other self-righteous women in the community and is refused service in some shops and feels threatened by any drunken men. Meriam and Mei begin a friendship although Meriam is unaware that Mei is female. Despite the language barrier their affinity commences with the mutual understanding of hardship, isolation and powerlessness.
Stone Sky Gold Mountain tells the story of Chinese migrants who came to Australia after the discovery of gold. Like all migrants most came willingly to earn money and live a better life because conditions in their home countries were unendurable, but being a migrant is not easy for anyone who is desperate and in Australia one hundred and forty years ago conditions were very harsh.
The novel reveals a great deal succinctly through the use of many short chapters which alternate with the different points of view of the main characters. Mei Ying and her brother Lai Yue, had arrived in the Queensland gold fields but quickly found out that life in Australia for Chinese people was not as comfortable as they had hoped. Nevertheless, they are determined to earn enough money to return to China in order to save their mother from destitution and rescue their two siblings who had been sold to pay for their family debt. Racism against the Chinese immigrants is so extensive that they are segregated from the rest of the community. Also, few Chinese speak English well if at all. The ‘white’ law makers do not protect the Chinese such as the two siblings who are easily taken advantage of by petty criminals who beat them to steal their tools. The two siblings struggle to make a living from looking for gold and move into the town after Mei becomes very ill and they lose more money paying for a doctor.
Apart from the bigotry and segregation, it is not a safe place for women so Mei Ying must pretend to be a boy and luckily is employed by a Chinese shop keeper. The Chinese are not faultless and steal from each other, succumb to frequenting gambling houses and opium dealers and become dependent on unscrupulous money lenders. The Chinese are easily blamed for every misdemeanour and accused of atrocities committed by any unruly prospectors and farm workers, reinforcing the prejudice in the community. This prejudice is against anyone who cannot speak English, anyone who is not white or from a country of the British empire, thus there is a pecking order from English, to European to people of colour, to Chinese and lastly Aboriginal (who are not recognised at all). The injustices against the original inhabitants are alluded to but the main characters are more troubled by the people with whom they associate with on a daily basis than to be concerned about the plight of the ‘natives’.
The bigotry is not just racist but extremely misogynist. Stone Sky Gold Mountain reveals the intolerable position that women found themselves in if they did not have a family or a husband to ‘protect’ them. Many a ‘fallen woman’, anyone having a child out-of-wedlock, was forced into prostitution, so Meriam banished by her family, was fortunate to earn a living as a housemaid for the independent Sophie. Still Meriam is ostracised by the other self-righteous women in the community and is refused service in some shops and feels threatened by any drunken men. Meriam and Mei begin a friendship although Meriam is unaware that Mei is female. Despite the language barrier their affinity commences with the mutual understanding of hardship, isolation and powerlessness.
January 29, 2021
A captivating character driven narrative, following the experiences of a young woman and two Chinese siblings on the Australian northern gold fields (mid-1800s). I greatly appreciated the central focus on those who were outcast from the society and white history of the time, but their present still greatly effected the gold rush communities.
The relationship between Meriem and Ying was beautiful, as they forged a connection across cultural and language differences. This opening of themselves to another across the divide they are rewarded with a sense of hope and freedom. Whilst Ying’s brother, Lai Yue, desperately holds onto the expectations and conventions of his past - even in the form of the ghost of his once future bride Shan. The weight of expectations from afar and the hostility of the whites and Australian landscapes slowly rot his sanity and body.
I was utterly engrossed and could not wait to continue reading it.
The relationship between Meriem and Ying was beautiful, as they forged a connection across cultural and language differences. This opening of themselves to another across the divide they are rewarded with a sense of hope and freedom. Whilst Ying’s brother, Lai Yue, desperately holds onto the expectations and conventions of his past - even in the form of the ghost of his once future bride Shan. The weight of expectations from afar and the hostility of the whites and Australian landscapes slowly rot his sanity and body.
I was utterly engrossed and could not wait to continue reading it.
October 9, 2021
I feel I’ve read some other sad books during this time of Covid but nothing tugged at the heartstrings more than this book. I’ve vaguely been aware of the long history of Chinese living in this country & was eager to find out more. The descriptions of this particular community in North Queensland aptly brought home to me the loves, hopes, fears of its characters & the clash of cultures with other gold digging individuals. Through the portrayal of Ying I felt the trials & tribulations of early Chinese settlers but also their dreams & innate dignity. It was a relief at last in such a sad book to read of a warm loving, equal relationship between two outsiders. I found the writing, though a bit flowery at times, beautifully descriptive.
July 20, 2020
I read this book as part of the Readings Book Club with @jamilarizvi and @clarebowditch. Jamila discussed this book with @_astridedwards_ on Facebook earlier this month.
Stone Sky, Gold Mountain follows siblings Ying and Lai Yue in Far North Queensland in 1877, just after the peak of the gold rush in that region. They have fallen on hard times and flee China in search of a better life. To protect herself Ying dresses as a boy which brings an interesting twist to the story as she becomes friends with Meriam, a white girl who has been cast out of the family home due to an unwanted pregnancy. The story is told by these protagonists in alternate chapters which allows the reader to go into their minds and explore their deepest thoughts.
Unsurprisingly, a big theme in the book is racism in its many forms. The most obvious one is white people treating people of colour horribly. Their disdain towards Chinese people is fleshed out quite well in this novel, but it is the violence towards Aboriginal people that is the most shocking. And it’s not just white people taking part in that violence.
Overall, this is a sobering story about the reality many migrants face in their new countries. We like to think that it all turns out well in the end, despite some hardship along the way. This book tells a different tale, one of slavery and its deadly consequences. It left me both heartbroken for one character and slightly optimistic for the other two. A difficult feat to pull off and Mirandi Riwoe did it masterfully. I expect this book to appear on many award lists.
Stone Sky, Gold Mountain follows siblings Ying and Lai Yue in Far North Queensland in 1877, just after the peak of the gold rush in that region. They have fallen on hard times and flee China in search of a better life. To protect herself Ying dresses as a boy which brings an interesting twist to the story as she becomes friends with Meriam, a white girl who has been cast out of the family home due to an unwanted pregnancy. The story is told by these protagonists in alternate chapters which allows the reader to go into their minds and explore their deepest thoughts.
Unsurprisingly, a big theme in the book is racism in its many forms. The most obvious one is white people treating people of colour horribly. Their disdain towards Chinese people is fleshed out quite well in this novel, but it is the violence towards Aboriginal people that is the most shocking. And it’s not just white people taking part in that violence.
Overall, this is a sobering story about the reality many migrants face in their new countries. We like to think that it all turns out well in the end, despite some hardship along the way. This book tells a different tale, one of slavery and its deadly consequences. It left me both heartbroken for one character and slightly optimistic for the other two. A difficult feat to pull off and Mirandi Riwoe did it masterfully. I expect this book to appear on many award lists.
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