New
novel by Felicity Castagna, whose previous book, The Incredible Here and Now, won the 2015 Prime Ministers Award for
Young Adult Fiction and was shortlisted for the CBCA and NSW Premier’s Literary
Awards.
The
subject is very topical. No More Boats
tackles the fear of refugees head on, portraying the anxieties of a man who was
once a migrant himself, brought to breaking point by the Tampa crisis, when the
nation itself is thrown into a xenophobic frame of mind.
It
is 2001. 438 refugees sit in a boat called Tampa off the shoreline of Australia
while the TV and radio scream out that the country is being flooded, inundated,
overrun by migrants. Antonio Martone, once a migrant himself, has been forced
to retire, his wife has moved in with the woman next door, his daughter runs
off with strange men, his deadbeat son is hiding in the garden smoking
marijuana. Amidst his growing paranoia, the ghost of his dead friend shows up
and commands him to paint ‘No More Boats’ in giant letters across his front
yard. The Prime Minister of Australia keeps telling Antonio that we will
decide who comes to this country and the circumstance in which they come, but Antonio’s not sure he wants to
think about all those things that led him to get on a boat and come to
Australia in the first place. A man and a nation unravel together.
Felicity Castagna is the author of the award-winning
novel The Incredible Here and Now,and its stage adaptation which will
premiere at The National Theatre of Parramatta in 2017. Her collection of short
stories Small Indiscretions was named
an ABR book of the year. Her work has appeared on ABC Radio and TV as well as
in national journals and newspapers. She holds a PhD from Western Sydney
University and has served as the National Ambassador for Literacy and as a
director at WestWords. She runs the storytelling series Studio Stories.
‘It is exciting to read a work of fiction that makes
an explicit connection between its characters’ personal narratives and the
specific events of political history; something of a tradition in American
fiction, but rarer in an Australian context.’ Delia Falconer
‘A
fantastic, timely novel that makes a significant contribution to contemporary
Australian literature – well-written, insightful, entertaining, provocative,
funny, intelligent and moving.’ Nathanael O’Reilly
I was blown away by Felicity Castagna’s depictions of
Western Sydney in The Incredible Here and
Now…There is something really quite magical and visceral about connecting
with character and place in a book.’ Randa Abdel-Fattah
