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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Sydney, 1980: The Turkish consul-general is assassinated by two gunmen, and an international terrorist group claim responsibility. Vrezh, an Armenian-Australian, longs to be involved, believing the attacks are justice for the Armenian genocide.
'Through his brother, Vrezh meets Softie, a shadowy Armenian. Softie forces him to build a bomb by threatening to turn his brother in to the police for the assassination.
'Desperate to save his brother, Vrezh uses the bomb to murder Softie, risking his own life. His brother arrives in time to save him, but Vrezh’s injuries and the resulting rift with his family leave him disillusioned.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Author's note: 'A novella and reflective essay.'
Contents
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Writing Violence, Arousing Curiosity,
single work
essay
(p. 65-88)
'Borne out of a manuscript longlisted for the 2017 KYD Unpublished Manuscript Award, Ashley Kalagian Blunt’s My Name Is Revenge is out this month with Spineless Wonders. In December 1980, two men shot a Turkish diplomat near his home in Sydney, and vanished. From this assassination in Australia, one of a series of international terrorist attacks, Kalagian Blunt’s novella traces back to the streets of 1920s Berlin and the Armenian genocide of World War I. The following is an extract from one of three companion essays.' (Publication abstract)
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The Crime of Crimes,
single work
essay
(p. 89-106)'The most intensely studied genocide is, without contest, the Holocaust. It's considered by some to be the archetypal genocide, a limit case, in part because the term genocide was first applied in a legal setting during the Nuremberg trials. Our ongoing interest in Nazi crimes against Jews and others seems unlikely to wane, particularly as new evidence is still being released. In 2017, the Weiner Library in London made public the UN War Crimes Commission archive, 900GB of evidence collected to prosecute Nazi government officials. It's a surfeit of documentation that could lead to the rewriting of aspects of Holocaust history.' (Introduction)
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Life After Genocide,
single work
essay
(p. 107-136)'The discovery that I was racist came as a shock, as you might imagine. I'd just returned to Canada from several years in Asia and Latin America. I had a new job working with migrants, and I was volunteering with refugees. Like many Canadians, cultural diversity awareness campaigns had filled my childhood with posters featuring hands drawn in red, blue, purple, green - all linked in a perfect circle. I believed in those hands. I thought I was living their message.' (Introduction)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Ashley Kalagian Blunt : My Name Is Revenge
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , December 2018;'A real act of terrorism in Sydney in the 1980s inspired Ashley Kalagian Blunt to write My Name is Revenge (a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award). ' (Introduction)
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Ashley Kalagian Blunt : My Name Is Revenge
2018
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , December 2018;'A real act of terrorism in Sydney in the 1980s inspired Ashley Kalagian Blunt to write My Name is Revenge (a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award). ' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2020 longlisted Davitt Award — Best Adult Crime Novel
- 2019 shortlisted The Woollahra Digital Literary Award — Fiction
- 2018 finalist The Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award
