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The Burnished Sun
This stunning story collection includes two prize-winning novellas along with an impressive range of historical and contemporary stories, all written by characters who yearn to belong and find acceptance.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 29, 2022
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189 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 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 6, 2022
‘Mislike me not for my complexion,
The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun.’
This is the quote from William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice) that opens Mirandi Riwoe’s extraordinary collection of short stories The Burnished Sun (UQP 2022), and it is apt because this writing – out of all of Riwoe’s accomplished works so far – best summarises her themes and concerns, and the social and historical issues that she is curious to explore.
Most of these tales (or versions thereof) have appeared in previously published form but somehow this anthology of collected stories is more than the sum of its parts. The underlying subtle examination of racism, misogyny, feminism and colonialism shines through whether the stories are contemporary or historical, the two timeframes complementing each other and showing us, sadly, what little distance we have covered.
The collection is bookended by two of Riwoe’s best-known and award-winning historical novellas: Annah the Javanese and The Fish Girl. The first is a reimagining of Gauguin’s muse/mistress/slave Annah, a woman of uncertain origin mentioned briefly in accounts of his life. Riwoe brings Annah to life as a bright and determined figure crushed by the crude passing of her from one owner to another, the expectations of her meekness, and the poverty and powerlessness of her situation. One of Riwoe’s greatest strengths as a writer is to retell the fate of women discarded as a curt note in history, swelling their lives with warmth and dreams and hopes; sketching them as full and whole, rather than as merely an adjunct to the famous men they served.
The same effect is achieved in The Fish Girl, in which Somerset Maugham’s derogatorily mentioned ‘Malay trollop’ referenced in The Four Dutchmen is brought out of the shadows and into the light, as Mina’s life is made whole through family, history, culture and relationships rather than diminished to the role she may have played in relation to the Dutchmen. Once again, we see Mina’s experience from an entirely new and fresh perspective – her own. The author has an uncanny ability to write about these women as if she knew them, and to force the reader to shift our thinking in relation to what history has conventionally told us about them.
The short stories in the middle of the book are mostly contemporary and offer a sharp contrast to the novellas. One centres on the stomach-lurching anxiety of a mother whose child is not invited to a kindy birthday party, another of the prejudice facing young skateboarders of colour. Hazel is a memorial to an older person’s loss during Covid isolation, while Dignity explores the unimaginable cruelty of disadvantaged women working away in foreign countries to support their families back home, wrenched from their babies and missing out on their lives. There is a strangely compelling and sad story of a teratoma, and if you don’t know what that word means, you must read the story to find out. There are stories of memories and of past forgotten lives, of grief and loss, of sexual unfulfillment. Riwoe writes adolescents and young people as deftly as she conjures the elderly.
The other theme binding this collection together is food. In every story, the growing of fruits, the harvesting of vegetables, the planning of menus, the preparation of feasts, the many different acts of cooking food and the consumption – no, the devouring – of delicacies is central. The smells and tastes and feel of foods evokes memory. The cooking of food denotes love and history and culture and family. Certain foods remind characters of other people, other places, other times. This book will make you hungry, both for nutritional sustenance and for the emotional satisfaction that comes from consuming these stories.
Riwoe is a talented and gifted writer. Her sentences are crafted with care and an attention to detail that is astounding. Her stories are littered with detail yet simultaneously spare and light. She will pull you in to a deep dive of intensity and then bring you suddenly to the surface with a wry comment or a perceptive piece of dialogue that reminds you of your relationship to the characters, your resemblance to their predicaments. She shows us what binds us together as well as the differences that set us apart. The Burnished Sun is a fantastic addition to Riwoe’s oeuvre.
The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun.’
This is the quote from William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice) that opens Mirandi Riwoe’s extraordinary collection of short stories The Burnished Sun (UQP 2022), and it is apt because this writing – out of all of Riwoe’s accomplished works so far – best summarises her themes and concerns, and the social and historical issues that she is curious to explore.
Most of these tales (or versions thereof) have appeared in previously published form but somehow this anthology of collected stories is more than the sum of its parts. The underlying subtle examination of racism, misogyny, feminism and colonialism shines through whether the stories are contemporary or historical, the two timeframes complementing each other and showing us, sadly, what little distance we have covered.
The collection is bookended by two of Riwoe’s best-known and award-winning historical novellas: Annah the Javanese and The Fish Girl. The first is a reimagining of Gauguin’s muse/mistress/slave Annah, a woman of uncertain origin mentioned briefly in accounts of his life. Riwoe brings Annah to life as a bright and determined figure crushed by the crude passing of her from one owner to another, the expectations of her meekness, and the poverty and powerlessness of her situation. One of Riwoe’s greatest strengths as a writer is to retell the fate of women discarded as a curt note in history, swelling their lives with warmth and dreams and hopes; sketching them as full and whole, rather than as merely an adjunct to the famous men they served.
The same effect is achieved in The Fish Girl, in which Somerset Maugham’s derogatorily mentioned ‘Malay trollop’ referenced in The Four Dutchmen is brought out of the shadows and into the light, as Mina’s life is made whole through family, history, culture and relationships rather than diminished to the role she may have played in relation to the Dutchmen. Once again, we see Mina’s experience from an entirely new and fresh perspective – her own. The author has an uncanny ability to write about these women as if she knew them, and to force the reader to shift our thinking in relation to what history has conventionally told us about them.
The short stories in the middle of the book are mostly contemporary and offer a sharp contrast to the novellas. One centres on the stomach-lurching anxiety of a mother whose child is not invited to a kindy birthday party, another of the prejudice facing young skateboarders of colour. Hazel is a memorial to an older person’s loss during Covid isolation, while Dignity explores the unimaginable cruelty of disadvantaged women working away in foreign countries to support their families back home, wrenched from their babies and missing out on their lives. There is a strangely compelling and sad story of a teratoma, and if you don’t know what that word means, you must read the story to find out. There are stories of memories and of past forgotten lives, of grief and loss, of sexual unfulfillment. Riwoe writes adolescents and young people as deftly as she conjures the elderly.
The other theme binding this collection together is food. In every story, the growing of fruits, the harvesting of vegetables, the planning of menus, the preparation of feasts, the many different acts of cooking food and the consumption – no, the devouring – of delicacies is central. The smells and tastes and feel of foods evokes memory. The cooking of food denotes love and history and culture and family. Certain foods remind characters of other people, other places, other times. This book will make you hungry, both for nutritional sustenance and for the emotional satisfaction that comes from consuming these stories.
Riwoe is a talented and gifted writer. Her sentences are crafted with care and an attention to detail that is astounding. Her stories are littered with detail yet simultaneously spare and light. She will pull you in to a deep dive of intensity and then bring you suddenly to the surface with a wry comment or a perceptive piece of dialogue that reminds you of your relationship to the characters, your resemblance to their predicaments. She shows us what binds us together as well as the differences that set us apart. The Burnished Sun is a fantastic addition to Riwoe’s oeuvre.
May 29, 2022
Loved this. A wonderful collection. It made me cry.
November 21, 2023
Absolutely delightful collectiion of 12 short stories
by a very talanted Austrailan writer!
Perfect book for a lazy Saturday reading...
My thoughts
by a very talanted Austrailan writer!
Perfect book for a lazy Saturday reading...
My thoughts
October 19, 2023
Riwoe's writing, at top form, has a sublime nature to it, as if the reader is observing characters carefully, with compassion, and just the right amount of distance. Several of the stories here do have Riwoe in top form - notably in Annah the Javanese, Hazel, Cintra Ku and the Fish Girl. While not all of these are that strong, there is plenty here to enjoy.
May 18, 2022
I loved reading the stories and perspectives of people we don’t usually hear from. The lives of these fictional people stayed with me long after I finished reading their story.
February 16, 2024
This collection of short stories, bookended with two fine novellas, is thematically arranged to focus on prejudice and intolerance, primarily in the lives of women. The brilliant ‘The Fish Girl’ ends this anthology and the collection is worth reading for this piece of work alone. In my opinion, the short story is not really Riwoe’s forte because some of the short stories here end abruptly or fall flat. Still, there is enough in this collection to demonstrate that this author is a talent worth watching.
3.5 🌟 scaled up due to The Fish Girl.
3.5 🌟 scaled up due to The Fish Girl.
May 21, 2023
It is rare for me to give a collection of stories five stars but this has all the qualities I look for: serious themes particularly showing prejudice and the lives of women; creation of characters that live beyond the page; and especially the writing itself, honed to perfection.
A set of contemporary short stories is bookended by two novellas set in the past - Annah the Javanese and The Fish Girl. These and all the stories have been published before but bringing them together enables Riwoe to display her concerns about people who are marginalised or whose voices are not often heard.
Annah the Javanese reimagines the experience of a teenage girl that Gauguin took into his life, first as servant and muse and later as his mistress. Accounts of Gauguin's life barely mention Annah although she is criticised in at least one art book for stealing his money and deserting him. In this version we see Annah from her point of view, see her fear and powerlessness but also her eventual determination to escape her life with the artist.
The Fish Girl takes another young Indonesian woman, Mina, who appears as a minor character in one of Somerset Maugham's stories. Instead of being a footnote, Mina is shown as a fully developed character, one who is exploited and abused both because she is a woman and because of her race. Riwoe is able to enter the minds and hearts of these women from the past and show their experiences in a new light.
There are 10 very short stories published between the novellas. They show how the plight of the powerless continues today. There are stories about a child not being invited to a party, about a mother's grief at her son's death, about a Filipina working in one of the Arab states, separated from her family and one about Hazel, isolated in her nursing home by a Covid lockdown. All of the stories end without resolution. I loved that, the way my imagination could spin out beyond the story.
I very much enjoyed Riwoe's novel Stone Sky, Gold Mountain which also brought to life stories from the past that have not been told before. I had not read the novellas before and thought that they and her stories take her work to a new level. I look forward to whatever she writes next!
A set of contemporary short stories is bookended by two novellas set in the past - Annah the Javanese and The Fish Girl. These and all the stories have been published before but bringing them together enables Riwoe to display her concerns about people who are marginalised or whose voices are not often heard.
Annah the Javanese reimagines the experience of a teenage girl that Gauguin took into his life, first as servant and muse and later as his mistress. Accounts of Gauguin's life barely mention Annah although she is criticised in at least one art book for stealing his money and deserting him. In this version we see Annah from her point of view, see her fear and powerlessness but also her eventual determination to escape her life with the artist.
The Fish Girl takes another young Indonesian woman, Mina, who appears as a minor character in one of Somerset Maugham's stories. Instead of being a footnote, Mina is shown as a fully developed character, one who is exploited and abused both because she is a woman and because of her race. Riwoe is able to enter the minds and hearts of these women from the past and show their experiences in a new light.
There are 10 very short stories published between the novellas. They show how the plight of the powerless continues today. There are stories about a child not being invited to a party, about a mother's grief at her son's death, about a Filipina working in one of the Arab states, separated from her family and one about Hazel, isolated in her nursing home by a Covid lockdown. All of the stories end without resolution. I loved that, the way my imagination could spin out beyond the story.
I very much enjoyed Riwoe's novel Stone Sky, Gold Mountain which also brought to life stories from the past that have not been told before. I had not read the novellas before and thought that they and her stories take her work to a new level. I look forward to whatever she writes next!
January 29, 2024
The first time I heard of Mirandi Riwoe was when I read the synopsis of The Fish Girl. I thought it was very fascinating but couldn't find a copy of that novella anywhere. Then by chance last mont, I found out that "The Burnished Sun" as indeed a short story collection of Riwoe and that it even contained "The Fish Girl" together with eleven other stories. So there are two novellas in this book, starting off with "Annah the Javanese" and ending with "The Fish Girl". The first story is inspired by Paul Gauguin's muse and a portrait that he named "Annah the Javanese". How did that Javanese woman end up in France in the late 19th century? How did she meet Gauguin, known for his fetish for the exotic? I applaud Riwoe for writing a story about a person that history didn't really show much interest to in the past due to racism. I am also curious about Annah. Unfortunately, the story was kind of lacking and didn't really captivate me as much as the last story "The Fish Girl". Now, the last story was completely heart-breaking, well-written, captivating, but the ending really messed me up. There's a quote in W. Somerset Maugham's The Four Dutchmen about a Malay girl, and Riwoe decided to write her story and here she really excelled. In between "Annah the Javanese" and "The Fish Girl", we find ten short stories, spread across Australian (immigrant and white), Indonesian and Chinese experiences. Every story focused on a theme; assimilation in Australia, autism, covid isolation for the elderly, abuse of foreign domestic helper, Nyi Roro Kidul, racism in friendship and casual sex, stereotypes, alcohol poisoning death in Bali... Overall, I like that Riwoe addresses themes that are not addressed in other stories and is giving a voice to the voiceless.
February 10, 2025
I purchased this book after attending a #historicalfiction masterclass with @mirandiriwoe through the @cbrwritersfest in 2022. After Mirandi talked about the first story in this collection, #TheBurnishedSun, I had to get it to find out how she had envisioned an ‘ending’ for the subject of the story, ‘Annah the Javanese’, the THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD girl kept by artist, #PaulGaugin. I have my 🤞🏼 MR’s ending for her was close to the truth. I was so enraged by him and rooting for her and her #GirlPower moment. Please let be true!
Two of the stories had me weeping tears of sympathy and empathy, which was a bit overwhelming, hence the “week off” I had to give myself before finishing the collection on what turned out to be my only #ReadingDay during the #BreakdownPeriod2024.
The stories are very invocative and left me feeling emotional and cross. #Colonialism is not a good thing. And will we (Australia) ever not be racist? And people who do bad things to children are evil, which is why I will not attend the Gaugin exhibition here in Canberra or anywhere else that disgusting man’s works are exhibited or celebrated with blockbuster shows.
Definitely recommend! And maybe one or two stories at a time in case you are prone to the emotional, angry response at people’s callousness and indifference toward their fellow human beings.
Two of the stories had me weeping tears of sympathy and empathy, which was a bit overwhelming, hence the “week off” I had to give myself before finishing the collection on what turned out to be my only #ReadingDay during the #BreakdownPeriod2024.
The stories are very invocative and left me feeling emotional and cross. #Colonialism is not a good thing. And will we (Australia) ever not be racist? And people who do bad things to children are evil, which is why I will not attend the Gaugin exhibition here in Canberra or anywhere else that disgusting man’s works are exhibited or celebrated with blockbuster shows.
Definitely recommend! And maybe one or two stories at a time in case you are prone to the emotional, angry response at people’s callousness and indifference toward their fellow human beings.
April 29, 2022
It’s been a while since I’ve read something from the Australian literature scene that’s worth talking about, and I’m so glad that this latest anthology by Mirandi Riwoe has broken that dry spell!
Riwoe’s prose is melancholic in a way that really digs at your core. There’s a heavy palpable sadness that shrouds every protagonist, many of them trapped by the cruelties of colonisation, in circumstances only afforded to the marginalised. A lot of these stories are devoid of any kindness, exemplifying the inhumanity that casual and blatant racism has wrought throughout history.
Riwoe is an Australian with Indonesian-Chinese heritage and her background has inspired many of the stories contained in THE BURNISHED SUN. It’s an impressive collection, spanning across historical and contemporary contexts within Australia and abroad. Her stories speak to themes of alienation and identity, her narrative voice moving effortlessly between the young and the old.
I was drawn to this anthology as my own maternal family is Indonesian-Chinese. Although I don’t speak the language, I have witnessed the hardships faced by many domestic servants when I have visited relatives in Indonesia. Stories like THE FISH GIRL, plucked for servitude at such a young age, and DIGNITY, where mothers have no other choice but to leave their babies behind while they seek work away from home — these are all situations I’ve seen with my own eyes.
I can also relate to stories like SHE IS RUBY WONG, who, despite being the most gifted actress auditioning for the lead in a community play, was cast in the role of the “foreigner” (strangely enough, I have a similar memory from my own childhood). And INVITATION, where a childcare educator suggests that a boy’s misbehaviour could be autism rather than simply the result of a language barrier (my own mother has been asked if I had mutism when I was a similar age — I was just painfully shy).
This is a superb anthology that really highlights how multifaceted otherness is and how affecting it can be. Keep an eye out for this one, it’s a standout.
Thank you University of Queensland Press for the review copy.
Find more of my reviews on Instagram: @tackling.my.tbr
Riwoe’s prose is melancholic in a way that really digs at your core. There’s a heavy palpable sadness that shrouds every protagonist, many of them trapped by the cruelties of colonisation, in circumstances only afforded to the marginalised. A lot of these stories are devoid of any kindness, exemplifying the inhumanity that casual and blatant racism has wrought throughout history.
Riwoe is an Australian with Indonesian-Chinese heritage and her background has inspired many of the stories contained in THE BURNISHED SUN. It’s an impressive collection, spanning across historical and contemporary contexts within Australia and abroad. Her stories speak to themes of alienation and identity, her narrative voice moving effortlessly between the young and the old.
I was drawn to this anthology as my own maternal family is Indonesian-Chinese. Although I don’t speak the language, I have witnessed the hardships faced by many domestic servants when I have visited relatives in Indonesia. Stories like THE FISH GIRL, plucked for servitude at such a young age, and DIGNITY, where mothers have no other choice but to leave their babies behind while they seek work away from home — these are all situations I’ve seen with my own eyes.
I can also relate to stories like SHE IS RUBY WONG, who, despite being the most gifted actress auditioning for the lead in a community play, was cast in the role of the “foreigner” (strangely enough, I have a similar memory from my own childhood). And INVITATION, where a childcare educator suggests that a boy’s misbehaviour could be autism rather than simply the result of a language barrier (my own mother has been asked if I had mutism when I was a similar age — I was just painfully shy).
This is a superb anthology that really highlights how multifaceted otherness is and how affecting it can be. Keep an eye out for this one, it’s a standout.
Thank you University of Queensland Press for the review copy.
Find more of my reviews on Instagram: @tackling.my.tbr
April 17, 2022
This brilliant collection of short stories covers a diverse range of characters across time, place, and culture. From a teenage skateboarder being told he doesn’t belong, to an elderly woman isolated during COVID, to a girl being horse-traded in the night, these stories reflect the way an individual’s place in society determines how they are treated in the world.
Told from a very intimate perspective, the stories portray how it feels to be on the receiving end of racism, misogyny and powerlessness, and the affect is visceral and heartbreaking. With vivid and beautiful prose, Mirandi Riwoe creates characters with families, homes, and cultures, who are maligned and abused just for being who they are. Racial slurs disguised as jokes, sexual exploitation by employers and exclusion from mainstream society are just some of the problems they must contend with. Some of them learn to negotiate it. Some don’t.
It's one thing to understand injustice in on an intellectual level, and another to be able to feel it. And Mirandi Riwoe’s stories help us do just that.
Told from a very intimate perspective, the stories portray how it feels to be on the receiving end of racism, misogyny and powerlessness, and the affect is visceral and heartbreaking. With vivid and beautiful prose, Mirandi Riwoe creates characters with families, homes, and cultures, who are maligned and abused just for being who they are. Racial slurs disguised as jokes, sexual exploitation by employers and exclusion from mainstream society are just some of the problems they must contend with. Some of them learn to negotiate it. Some don’t.
It's one thing to understand injustice in on an intellectual level, and another to be able to feel it. And Mirandi Riwoe’s stories help us do just that.
May 20, 2023
Annah the Javanese was my favourite story and the standout: Riwoe took a historical figure and placed her front and centre. The atmosphere was arresting.
As much as I liked The Fish Girl, it felt a bit like it was trying to do the same thing, with less success. The character of Mina didn't seem quite as compelling as Anna.
Of the contemporary stories, I liked the one about childbirth and the one about the actress. The rest fell a bit flat for me.
As much as I liked The Fish Girl, it felt a bit like it was trying to do the same thing, with less success. The character of Mina didn't seem quite as compelling as Anna.
Of the contemporary stories, I liked the one about childbirth and the one about the actress. The rest fell a bit flat for me.
June 13, 2022
A brilliant set of stories including two powerful novellas. The characters range from an old woman in a nursing home to a skateboarder. The themes cover belonging, self-worthiness and living in Australia as a refugee/migrant. There are also darker themes of exploitation and modern day slavery. Each story is worth re-reading.
April 24, 2022
Interesting to read short stories inspired by the history and politics of Indonesia. It would have been good as an Asian-Australian to have been able to read these kinds of stories while growing up in Australia. It would have made some of us feel less invisible.
July 21, 2022
Beautifully written
June 17, 2023
3.9 - the novella in the beginning was a bit of a trek to get through. However absolutely loved the rest of the short stories!
January 9, 2025
Devastatingly beautiful short stories portraying the messiness of life and the impact of colonialism and racism in our world, both past and present
November 13, 2025
Beautiful, powerful, amazing, heartbreaking stories. Highly recommended. Would read anything this author wrote.
July 20, 2023
The stories in this book are beautiful, one of the few books I finish and want to re-read all over again right away. To pick up the beauty I missed the first time around ❤️
An unexpected find at my local library, located in a front and centre shelf, so glad my library displayed this book in a way that it was meant to be found and enjoyed!
An unexpected find at my local library, located in a front and centre shelf, so glad my library displayed this book in a way that it was meant to be found and enjoyed!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews