AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Two sisters await the tidal wave predicted for 1970s Adelaide after Premier Don Dunstan decriminalises homosexuality. An interstate family drive is complicated by the father's memory of sighting UFOs. Two women drive from Melbourne to Sydney to see the Harbour Bridge before it's finished. An isolated family tries to weather climate change as the Doomsday Clock ticks.
'Emma Ashmere's stories explore illusion, deception and acts of quiet rebellion. Diverse characters travel high and low roads through time and place - from a grand 1860s Adelaide music hall to a dilapidated London squat, from a modern Melbourne hospital to the 1950s Maralinga test site, to the 1990s diamond mines of Borneo.
'Undercut with longing and unbelonging, absurdity and tragedy, thwarted plans and fortuitous serendipity, each story offers glimpses into the dreams, limitations, gains and losses of fragmented families, loners and lovers, survivors and misfits, as they piece together a place for themselves in the imperfect mosaic of the natural and unnatural world.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Dedication : 'For Delma'
Contents
- The Winter Months, single work short story (p. 1-16)
- Nightfall, single work short story (p. 17-31)
- Warhead, single work short story (p. 32-41)
- Standing up Lying Down, single work short story (p. 42-54)
- The Long Life of Milk, single work short story (p. 55-67)
- The Second Wave, single work short story (p. 68-81)
- The Historic Present, single work short story (p. 82-83)
- The Ends of the Earth, single work short story (p. 84-96)
- After the Storm, single work short story (p. 97-98)
- Portrait or Landscape, single work prose (p. 99-113)
- Caving, single work short story (p. 114-122)
- Silent Partner, single work short story (p. 123-127)
- Polar Bears in Sydney Harbour, single work short story (p. 128-136)
- Red Sea, single work short story (p. 137-141)
- Seaworthiness, single work (p. 142-152)
- The Sketchers, single work short story (p. 153-157)
- Trick of the Eye, single work short story (p. 158-171)
- The Violin, single work short story (p. 172-181)
- The Relaxing Jar, single work short story (p. 182-195)
- Lush Life, single work short story (p. 196-198)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Ripple Effects : Pinpoints of Life Experience
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 426 2020; (p. 35)
— Review of Dreams They Forgot 2020 selected work short story'A short story collection can have much in common with a collection of poetry, where each story pivots on attention to something particular and arresting – an image, a memory, the encounters with strangeness or beauty that can occur in a life. Individual stories build delicately towards such a moment, then fall away quickly, willing a reader to engage with feeling and suggestion rather than the comprehensiveness of narrative.' (Introduction)
-
Emma Ashmere, Dreams They Forgot
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 12-18 September 2020;
— Review of Dreams They Forgot 2020 selected work short story
-
Emma Ashmere, Dreams They Forgot
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 12-18 September 2020;
— Review of Dreams They Forgot 2020 selected work short story -
Ripple Effects : Pinpoints of Life Experience
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 426 2020; (p. 35)
— Review of Dreams They Forgot 2020 selected work short story'A short story collection can have much in common with a collection of poetry, where each story pivots on attention to something particular and arresting – an image, a memory, the encounters with strangeness or beauty that can occur in a life. Individual stories build delicately towards such a moment, then fall away quickly, willing a reader to engage with feeling and suggestion rather than the comprehensiveness of narrative.' (Introduction)
- Adelaide, South Australia,
- 1970s