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Mateship with Birds

By Carrie Tiffany
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Set in 1950s rural Australia, Mateship with Birds follows Harry, a solitary farmer who observes a family of kookaburras through the seasons of life and nature. Meanwhile, Betty, his hardworking neighbour raising two children alone, watches Harry with equal intrigue. Their lives converge when Harry attempts to teach Betty's son, Michael, about love and sex, leading to complicated and uncertain boundaries. This novel beautifully explores themes of young lust, mature love, and the unconventional concept of family amid the rhythms of country life.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2499
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers who appreciate literary fiction rich in atmosphere and character study, especially those drawn to stories set in the Australian countryside that explore relationships, family dynamics, and human connection.

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On the outskirts of an Australian country town in the 1950s, a lonely farmer trains his binoculars on a family of kookaburras that roost in a tree near his house. Harry observes the kookaburras through a year of feast, famine, birth, death, war, romance and song.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Mateship with Birds is the WINNER OF THE STELLA PRIZE 2013. Praised as "clever, original and richly rewarding" by the Australian Bookseller & Publisher, and hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald as "it might just be the sweetest book about sex you will ever read".

On the outskirts of an Australian country town in the 1950s, a lonely farmer trains his binoculars on a family of kookaburras that roost in a tree near his house. Harry observes the kookaburras through a year of feast, famine, birth, death, war, romance and song. As Harry watches the birds, his next door neighbour has her own set of binoculars trained on him.

Ardent, hard-working Betty has escaped to the country with her two fatherless children. Betty is pleased that her son, Michael, wants to spend time with the gentle farmer next door. But when Harry decides to teach Michael about the opposite sex, perilous boundaries are crossed.

Mateship with Birds is a novel about young lust and mature love. It is a hymn to the rhythm of country life - to vicious birds, virginal cows, adored dogs and ill-used sheep. On one small farm in a vast, ancient landscape, a collection of misfits question the nature of what a family can be.

Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2013, the novel also won the NSW Premier's Literary Awards' Christina Stead Prize 2013. Additionally, it was a finalist for the Melbourne Prize for Literature for Best Writing Award 2012, and shortlisted for the VIC Premier's Literary Awards' Prize for Fiction 2013 and Prime Minister's Literary Awards' Prize for Fiction 2013. It was also longlisted for Nita B Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers' Kibble Literary Award 2013.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781742610764

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 February 2012

Country: Australia

Imprint: Picador Australia

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 224g

Pages: 224

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Carrie Tiffany Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction

About the Author

Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. She spent her early twenties working as a park ranger in the Red Centre and now lives in Melbourne, where she works as an agricultural journalist. Her first novel, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living (2005) was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, and won the Dobbie Award for Best First Book (2006) and the 2006 Western Australian Premier's Award for Fiction. Mateship with Birds is her second novel.

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