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White Eye
Animal rights activist Diana Pembridge is embroiled in a tangle of scientific corruption and sexual scandal when her friend, scientist Carolyn Williams, is found murdered, and chief scientist John Parker will go to any lengths to protect his deadly secrets. 12,500 first printing.
- GenresFiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Blanche d'Alpuget
29 books10 followersBlanche d’Alpuget has returned to fiction with the publication of ‘The Young Lion’, the first novel in a compelling new series about the House of Plantagenet, the mightiest royal dynasty in English history.
An acclaimed novelist, biographer and essayist Blanche has won numerous literary awards including the prestigious Australasian Prize for Commonwealth Literature in 1987. Her previous novels include Monkeys in the Dark (1980); Turtle Beach (1981) which won the Age book award in 1981; Winter in Jerusalem (1986) and White Eye (1993). Turtle Beach became a successful feature film in 1992 and all her novels have been translated into other languages. Her non-fiction books include Mediator: a biography of Sir Richard Kirby (1977) and Robert J Hawke: a biography (1982). Her essays include Lust (1993) and On Longing (2008).
An acclaimed novelist, biographer and essayist Blanche has won numerous literary awards including the prestigious Australasian Prize for Commonwealth Literature in 1987. Her previous novels include Monkeys in the Dark (1980); Turtle Beach (1981) which won the Age book award in 1981; Winter in Jerusalem (1986) and White Eye (1993). Turtle Beach became a successful feature film in 1992 and all her novels have been translated into other languages. Her non-fiction books include Mediator: a biography of Sir Richard Kirby (1977) and Robert J Hawke: a biography (1982). Her essays include Lust (1993) and On Longing (2008).
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 29, 2019
This book had been sitting on my parents’ bookshelf for years – probably since it was new in 1993. I never read it because I thought of Blanche d’Alpuget as Bob Hawke’s biographer and lover, not as a novelist. But my friend Camille recently read it and said it had lots of great stuff about training raptors, and since I loved H Is for Hawk, I decided to give it a go.
I was surprised by how contemporary its eco-thriller themes are: the villain wants to save the world by controlling human population, and the heroine is a wildlife conservationist. The book is told from various characters’ perspectives, and some of their descriptions and ways of expressing themselves felt very dated now in a way that reminds me this is an old book, but the plot is quite gripping and d’Alpuget isn’t afraid to kill characters off. It had the pace and scope of a prestige TV series of the sort that would appear on ABC or Foxtel or Stan; I was sure it must have been adapted to the screen before but I checked IMDb and it doesn’t seem to have, though d’Alpuget’s earlier novel Turtle Beach has.
I feel like 2019 is the year that many people woke up to the fact that the environment is not only an issue for ‘greenies’ and ‘hippies’ but an existential concern in the face of a climate crisis. The nature writing here is evocative, and as I read, I mused that the northern NSW inland lake where the book is set would probably be dry now and the landscape ravaged by drought and bushfire.
My only knowledge of raptors is pretty much H Is for Hawk but it struck me that d’Alpuget writes about these birds with a sense of familiarity and authority. She does the same with lab animals and genetic engineering, and her acknowledgments show that this comes from extensive observation and research with experts.
I finished this book with a lot more respect for its author than when I began.
I was surprised by how contemporary its eco-thriller themes are: the villain wants to save the world by controlling human population, and the heroine is a wildlife conservationist. The book is told from various characters’ perspectives, and some of their descriptions and ways of expressing themselves felt very dated now in a way that reminds me this is an old book, but the plot is quite gripping and d’Alpuget isn’t afraid to kill characters off. It had the pace and scope of a prestige TV series of the sort that would appear on ABC or Foxtel or Stan; I was sure it must have been adapted to the screen before but I checked IMDb and it doesn’t seem to have, though d’Alpuget’s earlier novel Turtle Beach has.
I feel like 2019 is the year that many people woke up to the fact that the environment is not only an issue for ‘greenies’ and ‘hippies’ but an existential concern in the face of a climate crisis. The nature writing here is evocative, and as I read, I mused that the northern NSW inland lake where the book is set would probably be dry now and the landscape ravaged by drought and bushfire.
My only knowledge of raptors is pretty much H Is for Hawk but it struck me that d’Alpuget writes about these birds with a sense of familiarity and authority. She does the same with lab animals and genetic engineering, and her acknowledgments show that this comes from extensive observation and research with experts.
I finished this book with a lot more respect for its author than when I began.
Displaying 1 of 1 review