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Summary

This story of a cult messiah, Oyster, is set in an outback opal mining town in Queensland. The novel attempts to explore the clash of extreme cultural differences - the nature of evil, the relationship between good and evil and the question of individual accountability.

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Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital

By cunning intention, and sometimes by discreet bribery, Outer Maroo has managed to keep itself off the map. And yet people do stumble into town, because the seduction of nowhere is hard to resist. Opal draws most of them. The word itself is like a charm. You can stroke a word like opal. You can taste it. You can swallow it whole, raw and silky, like an oyster. And then Oyster can reel you in. Two strangers reach an opal-mining town in Queensland's outback, searching for a stepdaughter and a son, who have mysteriously disappeared. There is a heavy, guilty feel to the hot, parched-dry town where the drinkers standing on the verandah of Bernie's Last Chance wait to take stock of the foreigners before returning to the sheep stations or to the stake-outs in opal fields. This is Outer Maroo. Population 87. Here two opposing cultures - the rough-diamond, boozing, bush folk and the teetotaller, church-going fundamentalists - used to co-exist peacably. Until the arrival of the cult messiah Oyster.
.. one of the most innovative writers in English today... TLS often compelling and sometimes disorientating book... Not just opalescent but Technicolour, OYSTER is a headier book than we are used to in our little country. SUNDAY TIMES You can almost smell the stink of the heat... its evocative sense of place and exciting plot should command a wider readership for an author of powerful literary gifts. INDEPENDENT WEEKEND Janette Turner Hospital has the bravery of a consistent risk-taker and OYSTER is an engaging novel. TLS
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781860491634
ISBN 10 1860491634
Title Oyster
Author Janette Turner Hospital
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Year published 1997-07-03
Number of pages 464
Prizes Short-listed for "Banjo" Award for Fiction 1997
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.