Skip to content

AFTER STORY

Larissa Behrendt

When a mother and daughter take the overseas trip of a lifetime, they discover that the past is never quite behind them.
When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England's most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together and give her mother an inspiring break from the difficult life she has endured.

Twenty-five years earlier the disappearance of Jasmine's older sister devastated their tight-knit community. This tragedy returns to haunt Jasmine and Della when another child mysteriously goes missing on Hampstead Heath. As Jasmine immerses herself in the world of her literary idols - including Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Virginia Woolf - Della is inspired to rediscover the wisdom of her own culture and storytelling. But sometimes the stories that are not told can become too great to bear.

Ambitious and engrossing, After Story celebrates the extraordinary power of words and the quiet spaces between. We can be ready to listen, but are we ready to hear?

Larissa Behrendt is Professor of Indigenous Research and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at UTS. Larissa has published textbooks on Indigenous legal issues and is the author of two novels: Home, which won the 2002 David Unaipon Award and the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book; and Legacy, which won the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing.
Available products
Book

Published 2021-07-01 by UQP University of Queensland Press - St Lucia (AUS)

Comments

After Story is a work of great originality. It is a tale of discovery and understanding, envisioned through the shared experiences of Della and Jasmine on a journey to the "old country", a place that is not theirs. Through Della and Jasmine we come to understand the depths of familial love, with poignancy, humour and true storytelling.

One of Australia's most eloquent commentators on the Indigenous experience pens a moving novel of family, betrayal, forgiveness, sovereignty and history... Strong characters drive Behrendt's evocative and important tale.

A moving story of going far away to find home again - a beautiful, hopeful book.

A literary tour that speaks to the imagination, connecting the cannon of English literature to the lives of a mother and daughter whose own stories have been untold, Larissa weaves an exquisite tapestry that talks to our common humanity that lives within the stories we collect, treasure and share.