Wonders of a Godless World
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Andrew McGahan |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Allen & Unwin |
Publication date | October 2009 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 260 (first edition) |
| ISBN | 978-1-74175-809-2 |
Wonders of a Godless World is a 2009 novel by Andrew McGahan. Described as "a kind of modern fable" that "verges on fantasy", it won the 2009 Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel.
It follows the story of an orphan girl who is working in the wards of the insane and incapable, but the inhabitants are thrown into turmoil after a series of strange murders following the arrival of a new patient.[1]
Miles Franklin-winning Queensland author Andrew McGahan, the author of 10 novels including Praise, Last Drinks, The White Earth and the Ship Kings series, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 52.
McGahan broke into the industry in 1992 with Praise, a raw, comic and semi-autobiographical novel that captured the essence of Brisbane as it emerged from the Bjelke-Petersen era.
He followed it up with a prequel, 1988; and Last Drinks, a dark crime novel and murder mystery that took a dark look at police corruption in pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry Queensland.
The White Earth (2004) was his biggest literary success: a gothic drama set in the Australian wheatfields, a loose approximation of the Darling Downs, Queensland, where McGahan grew up, the ninth of 10 children. The White Earth won him the Miles Franklin and the Commonwealth Writers’ prize, and was named by both the Age and the Courier-Mail as the book of the year. McGahan – who won the Matilda prize for his 1992 play Bait while a resident at Queensland Theatre company – also adapted the novel for the stage, for a production he also co-directed, which ran at La Boite theatre company in Brisbane in 2009.
Background
Wonders of a Godless World was first published in Australia in October 2009 by Allen & Unwin in trade paperback format.[1] It was released in the United Kingdom in May 2010 by Blue Door.[2] Wonders of a Godless World won the 2009 Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel.[3]
Synopsis
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"Set on an unnamed island in the near present, it is told from the perspective of a simple young woman, an orphan, mute, reared in a mental hospital and an orderly there, who forms a bond with a mysterious coma patient, a man with telepathic powers who claims to be immortal..."[4]
Throughout the book the reader can never be sure that the mute orphan narrator is a reliable narrator. The possibility that her telepathic bond with the patient is in fact a figment of her imagination is always left open. So rather than science fiction, the book could instead be read as an insight into delusion.[5]
References
- ^ a b "Wonders of a Godless World". Allen & Unwin. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
- ^ "Wonders of a Godless World by Andrew McGahan". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
- ^ "Aurealis Awards 2009: Science Fiction Novel Judges' Report" (PDF). Aurealis Awards. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
- ^ Geordie Williamson, chief literary critic, The Australian
- ^ Andrew McGahan, Interviewed by Jo Case, Readings
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