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'It's 1969 and the world is alight with revolution. Oliver Lawrence, a Bondi Beach kid, is transported to one of the world's most bewitching cities: Beirut in the Levant.
'The city is on the verge of civil war, but Oliver, who idolises Jimi Hendrix and Lawrence of Arabia, is more concerned with holding his family together. This mission becomes complicated as Oliver's ravishing, gin-swilling stepmother, Babette, and cavalier playboy pilot father indulge in unbridled expatriate partying. And Babette has a secret that Oliver is determined to uncover.
'Beirut is a confusing place to learn how to be a man, involving snipers, codes of honour and purloined letters. As Lebanon begins to disintegrate, no one can avoid being caught in the crossfire.
It's bad enough when Oliver develops a very public crush on the local warlord's girlfriend, but it turns disastrous when his young guerrilla friend, ‘Ringo', enlists his misguided enthusiasm to turn his exploding cigar magic trick into a suitcase bomb.
'When Oliver is given an old Box Brownie, he finds a way into the world, into the lives of others and, finally, into adulthood. Oliver of the Levant is by turns humorous and heart-breaking, an all-atsea story about the secret longings of youth and the uncomfortable truths that make us who we are.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print.
Works about this Work
-
Coming-of-Age and Learning the Truth
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 May 2016; (p. 32) The Saturday Age , 28-29 May 2016; (p. 26)
— Review of Oliver of the Levant 2016 single work novel -
Debra Jopson, Oliver of the Levant
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 9 April 2016;
— Review of Oliver of the Levant 2016 single work novel -
Free Spirit
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 17 April 2016; (p. 13) -
Debra Jopson
Anne Susskind
(interviewer),
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 April 2016; (p. 24) The Age , 16-17 April 2016; (p. 24) 'Experience as a journalist reporting on the stolen generations prompted her to turn to fiction and tell a deeper back story for a change. ' -
Evocative Tales of Distant Times and Places
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 26 March 2016; (p. 18)
— Review of The Tortoise in Asia 2016 single work novel ; Oliver of the Levant 2016 single work novel'Two first-time novelists have brought their experience and fascination to works set far from home. Tony Grey’s The Tortoise in Asia takes place in the last century BC along the Silk Road... Debra Jopson, who won a Walkley Award for independent journalism in 2014, "spent part of her childhood in Beirut and continued to visit her family there during the first rounds of the 1970s Lebanon civil war." She has drawn on those memories for Oliver of the Levant (Peter Pierce).
-
Evocative Tales of Distant Times and Places
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 26 March 2016; (p. 18)
— Review of The Tortoise in Asia 2016 single work novel ; Oliver of the Levant 2016 single work novel'Two first-time novelists have brought their experience and fascination to works set far from home. Tony Grey’s The Tortoise in Asia takes place in the last century BC along the Silk Road... Debra Jopson, who won a Walkley Award for independent journalism in 2014, "spent part of her childhood in Beirut and continued to visit her family there during the first rounds of the 1970s Lebanon civil war." She has drawn on those memories for Oliver of the Levant (Peter Pierce).
-
Debra Jopson, Oliver of the Levant
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 9 April 2016;
— Review of Oliver of the Levant 2016 single work novel -
Coming-of-Age and Learning the Truth
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 May 2016; (p. 32) The Saturday Age , 28-29 May 2016; (p. 26)
— Review of Oliver of the Levant 2016 single work novel -
Debra Jopson : Oliver of the Levant
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2016;
— Review of Oliver of the Levant 2016 single work novel -
Debra Jopson
Anne Susskind
(interviewer),
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 16-17 April 2016; (p. 24) The Age , 16-17 April 2016; (p. 24) 'Experience as a journalist reporting on the stolen generations prompted her to turn to fiction and tell a deeper back story for a change. ' -
Free Spirit
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 17 April 2016; (p. 13)
-
cLebanon,cMiddle East, Asia,
-
Beirut,
cLebanon,cMiddle East, Asia,
- 1969