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The year is 2025. Hector leaves his underground community which has been isolated for over half a century. Above ground he meets Diana. She lives a very different life beside a mystical lake, with her mother and crippled father. Suspicious of each other's versions of history, it is only when they are forced to visit the place of Hector's birth that their dependence on each other becomes clear.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille, sound recording.
Works about this Work
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The Perfect Place to Set a Novel about the End of the World? Trends in Australian Post-Nuclear Fiction for Young Adults
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 53 no. 2 2015; (p. 22-29) '"Australia has a fascinating yet contradictory nuclear history," writes Jeffrey Lantis, and this ambiguity can be seen in the post-nuclear young adult fiction produced in that country. British, American and German speculative fiction for young readers set after nuclear disaster tends to suggest reasons for the disaster, and by implication, to position readers towards acting to stop the disaster happening in the real world. By contrast, Australian writers of both fantasy and speculative fiction tend to be less concerned with the cause of the disaster than with how the nuclear apocalypse can be used to explore a range of cultural issues which may appear to have little or nothing to do with nuclear disaster. Working with the notion of apocalypse as both revelation and, more popularly, as a violent "end event" (Curtis), this paper explores why young adult post-nuclear fiction produced in Australia tends to be different from that produced in Britain, the USA and Germany, and demonstrates how the nuclear disaster is used in a selection of Australian young adult post-disaster fiction to address cultural issues, particularly those dealing with Australia's Indigenous population, and with the contemporary treatment of refugees.' (Publication summary) -
Children of the Apocalypse
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 108-134)This chapter explores apocalypse in children's literature with reference to literary attitudes to children, nature and dystopia. Examinations of works by Lee Harding, Victor Kelleher, and John Marsden then focus on how these writers adapt apocalyptic themes for a juvenile audience. Their novels display tyranny, large-scale catastrophe, invasion, and children in danger, and their apocalyptic settings reveal anxieties about isolation, invasion, Indigenous land rights and colonization. (108)
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Caroline Macdonald : 'Future to Present'
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Adolescent Novel : Australian Perspectives 1997; (p. 165-172) -
Futuristic Tales Take Her Back to Own Youth
1990
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Mercury , 26 May 1990; (p. 20) -
A Neanderthal in the Family
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian , 22 March 1990; (p. 24)
— Review of The Lake at the End of the World 1988 single work novel
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[Review] You Take the High Road
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Editions , August no. 1 1989; (p. 10-11)
— Review of The Lake at the End of the World 1988 single work novel ; You Take the High Road 1988 single work novel ; Answers to Brut 1988 single work children's fiction -
Remarkable award hat-trick for writer
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 July 1989;
— Review of Beyond the Labyrinth 1988 single work novel ; The Lake at the End of the World 1988 single work novel -
Logical Selection and One Glaring Omission
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 June 1989;
— Review of Mr Nick's Knitting 1988 single work picture book ; The Eleventh Hour : A Curious Mystery 1988 single work picture book ; Callie's Family 1988 single work children's fiction ; You Take the High Road 1988 single work novel ; The Best-Kept Secret 1988 single work children's fiction ; Answers to Brut 1988 single work children's fiction ; Drac and the Gremlin 1988 single work picture book ; Wiggy and Boa 1988 single work children's fiction ; Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves 1988 single work picture book ; Megan's Star 1988 single work novel ; The Lake at the End of the World 1988 single work novel -
[Review] The Lake at the End of the World
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Scan , May vol. 8 no. 4 1989; (p. 12)
— Review of The Lake at the End of the World 1988 single work novel -
Children's Book Week Reviews
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Incite , 10 July 1989; (p. 13)
— Review of The Lake at the End of the World 1988 single work novel -
Children of the Apocalypse
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 108-134)This chapter explores apocalypse in children's literature with reference to literary attitudes to children, nature and dystopia. Examinations of works by Lee Harding, Victor Kelleher, and John Marsden then focus on how these writers adapt apocalyptic themes for a juvenile audience. Their novels display tyranny, large-scale catastrophe, invasion, and children in danger, and their apocalyptic settings reveal anxieties about isolation, invasion, Indigenous land rights and colonization. (108)
-
Futuristic Tales Take Her Back to Own Youth
1990
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Mercury , 26 May 1990; (p. 20) -
Caroline Macdonald : 'Future to Present'
1997
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Adolescent Novel : Australian Perspectives 1997; (p. 165-172) -
The Children's Book Council of Australia Awards 1989
1989
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , vol. 33 no. 3 1989; (p. 3-8) The judges' report for the 1989 Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards. -
The Perfect Place to Set a Novel about the End of the World? Trends in Australian Post-Nuclear Fiction for Young Adults
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 53 no. 2 2015; (p. 22-29) '"Australia has a fascinating yet contradictory nuclear history," writes Jeffrey Lantis, and this ambiguity can be seen in the post-nuclear young adult fiction produced in that country. British, American and German speculative fiction for young readers set after nuclear disaster tends to suggest reasons for the disaster, and by implication, to position readers towards acting to stop the disaster happening in the real world. By contrast, Australian writers of both fantasy and speculative fiction tend to be less concerned with the cause of the disaster than with how the nuclear apocalypse can be used to explore a range of cultural issues which may appear to have little or nothing to do with nuclear disaster. Working with the notion of apocalypse as both revelation and, more popularly, as a violent "end event" (Curtis), this paper explores why young adult post-nuclear fiction produced in Australia tends to be different from that produced in Britain, the USA and Germany, and demonstrates how the nuclear disaster is used in a selection of Australian young adult post-disaster fiction to address cultural issues, particularly those dealing with Australia's Indigenous population, and with the contemporary treatment of refugees.' (Publication summary)
Awards
- 1991-1992 South Carolina (USA) Young Adult Book Award
- 1990 runner-up Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
- 1990 third Children's Book Awards (NZ)
- 1989 shortlisted Esther Glen Memorial Medal (NZ Library Association)
- 1989 honour book CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Book of the Year: Older Readers
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cNew Zealand,cPacific Region,
- 2025