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Melanie Joosten (1)

Autore di Berlin Syndrome

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3+ opere 58 membri 3 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Melanie Joosten is an Australian writer. She holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours), a Master of Arts (Editing) and a Master of Social Work. Berlin Syndrome (2011) was her debut novel. She was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist and awarded the Kathleen Mitchell Award for Young mostra altro Writers. She has also received grants from the Australia Council and Arts Victoria and residencies from Writing Australia and Varuna. She has had work published in Best Australian Stories 2014, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and Sleepers Almanac. Her other work include a collection of essays entitled A Long Time Coming: Essays on Ageing. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno

Opere di Melanie Joosten

Berlin Syndrome (2011) 46 copie
Gravity Well (2017) 10 copie

Opere correlate

The Best Australian Stories 2014 (2014) — Collaboratore — 13 copie

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Recensioni

It’s not so very long ago that my mother died of ovarian cancer so there were times when reading Melanie Joosten’s second novel was difficult for me. One of her characters dies of the disease, and her daughter fears the genetic inheritance as I do. But Gravity Well is so intriguingly constructed and so engaging on the subject of damaged relationships that I put my feelings to one side and kept on reading anyway…

But first, the title. I bet I’m not the only reader who Googles it to find out what it means.

A gravity well or gravitational well is a conceptual model of the gravitational field surrounding a body in space – the more massive the body, the deeper and more extensive the gravity well associated with it. The Sun is very massive, relative to other bodies in the Solar System, so the corresponding gravity well that surrounds it appears “deep” and far-reaching. The gravity wells of asteroids and small moons, conversely, are often depicted as very shallow. Anything on the surface of a planet or moon is considered to be at the bottom of that celestial body’s gravity well, and so escaping the effects of gravity from such a planet or moon (to enter outer space) is sometimes called “climbing out of the gravity well”. The deeper a gravity well is, the more energy any space-bound “climber” must use to escape it. (Wikipedia, viewed 3/8/17)


And I bet I’m not the only person who doesn’t understand the significance of this title until the end of the book.

Gravity Well begins with a prologue, so the reader knows that something terrible has happened, but not what it is. Thereafter, third person narratives bring the intersecting stories of Lotte and Eve, once the best of friends but now both perilously alone. Eve is a sound engineer, captivated by the the minutiae of our world: animal, human and the built environment. Lotte is an astronomer, fascinated by the night sky, and obsessed by the quest to find new planets. Lotte and her colleagues amuse themselves by cataloguing all the gruesome ways there are to die in space. And Lotte jettisons relationships without a qualm because, well, what does it matter? we’re all just specks in the universe.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/08/03/gravity-well-by-melanie-joosten/
… (altro)
 
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anzlitlovers | Aug 2, 2017 |
Deeply disturbing (blurb told us it would be a psychological thriller) - begins innocently enough but escalates into a page turner - interesting structure with the both main characters as narrators - unexpected ending that leaves much for the reader to consider about what the aftermath may have been.
 
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siri51 | 1 altra recensione | Jan 29, 2017 |
I would have preferred to give this book a 3.5 but am feeling generous so opted for a 4. I did prefer this book to Room (another hostage story) mainly because I didn't feel manipulated while reading this. The author sets the story in what was once East Berlin and the symbolism of being trapped behind walls is very obvious. Despite few characters and little action I did not get bored and found the way the victim and the perpetrator view the kidnapping very interesting. Great ending even though I was left wanting a little bit more.… (altro)
 
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jodes101 | 1 altra recensione | May 9, 2013 |

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Statistiche

Opere
3
Opere correlate
1
Utenti
58
Popolarità
#284,346
Voto
4.1
Recensioni
3
ISBN
15

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