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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'It’s 1965 and Joe Cluny is living in a working-class suburb with his mum, Marion, and sister, Ruby, spending his days trying to avoid trouble with the nuns at the local Catholic primary school. One evening his Aunty Oona appears on the doorstep, distressed and needing somewhere to stay. As his mum and aunty work out what to do, Joe comes to understand the secrets that the women in his family carry, including on their bodies. Yet their pleas for assistance are met with silence and complicity from all sides. Who will help Joe’s family at their time of need?
'Women & Children is a novel about the love and courage between two sisters, and a sudden loss of childhood innocence.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Chekhov’s Gun in Women & Children
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , January 2024;
— Review of Women and Children 2023 single work novel -
From Alexis Wright to Tony Birch and Evelyn Araluen: Powerful Books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , January 2024;
— Review of Praiseworthy 2023 single work novel ; Edenglassie 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children 2023 single work novel ; Firelight 2023 selected work short story ; Harvest Lingo 2022 selected work poetry ; Close to the Subject : Selected Works 2023 selected work essay interview ; Dropbear 2021 selected work poetry essay ; The Yield 2019 single work novel -
The 17 Best Books of 2023
2024
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22 January 2024;
— Review of The Sitter 2023 single work novel ; Killing for Country : A Family Story 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; The Conversion 2023 single work novel ; The Vitals 2023 single work prose ; Right Story, Wrong Story : Adventures in Indigenous Thinking 2023 multi chapter work criticism ; Praiseworthy 2023 single work novel ; Edenglassie 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children 2023 single work novel ; The Art of Breaking Ice 2023 single work novel ; I'd Rather Not 2023 single work autobiography ; On Peter Carey : Writers on Writers 2023 single work biography ; New Australian Fiction 2023 2023 anthology short story ; Critic Swallows Book : Ten Years of the Sydney Review of Books 2023 anthology review essay -
y
Tony Birch on Working Class Storytelling in Australia
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2023
27358397
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'Tony Birch is an activist, historian and essayist. In this interview Tony reflects on his most recent novel, Women and Children.
'His works include The White Girl (winner of the 2020 NSW Premier's Award for Indigenous Writing and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Prize), Ghost River (winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing), and Blood (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award).' (Production summary)
-
We’re All Responsible for Preventing Domestic Violence – and Men Play a Crucial Role. Tony Birch’s New Novel Makes the Case
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 14 December 2023;
— Review of Women and Children 2023 single work novel
-
Tony Birch Women and Children
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 11-17 November 2023;
— Review of Women and Children 2023 single work novel -
Women and Children by Tony Birch Review – a New High for the Master Craftsman
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 November 2023;
— Review of Women and Children 2023 single work novel 'In his beautiful and forthright book, Birch brings a tender simplicity to his characters in a story about the trauma of violence – and the power of family' -
The New Books Our Avid Readers and Critics Couldn't Put down in November
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , November 2023;
— Review of The Conversion 2023 single work novel ; Women and Children 2023 single work novel ; Question 7 2023 single work prose -
Refusing Silence : Reiterations of Violence in Tony Birch’s New Novel
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 460 2023; (p. 42)
— Review of Women and Children 2023 single work novel 'In conversation with the Guardian’s Paul Daley in the final days of 2021, Tony Birch addressed the recurring presence of both strong women and violent men in his work. Citing the Sydney writer Ross Gibson, Birch said he likes to think of the common themes that a writer revisits across his or her body of work as ‘reiterations’. In Birch’s oeuvre, perhaps chief among these reiterations is the impact of male violence on family and community life – from ‘The Butcher’s Wife’ in Shadowboxing (2006) to the Kane men in The White Girl (2019). His latest book, Women and Children, brings this theme into sharp relief.' (Introduction) -
We’re All Responsible for Preventing Domestic Violence – and Men Play a Crucial Role. Tony Birch’s New Novel Makes the Case
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 14 December 2023;
— Review of Women and Children 2023 single work novel -
y
Tony Birch on Working Class Storytelling in Australia
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2023
27358397
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'Tony Birch is an activist, historian and essayist. In this interview Tony reflects on his most recent novel, Women and Children.
'His works include The White Girl (winner of the 2020 NSW Premier's Award for Indigenous Writing and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Prize), Ghost River (winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing), and Blood (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award).' (Production summary)
