AustLit

'... controversial, scandalous sometimes, in the main doing away with certain conventionalities and taboos, this collection of stories is guaranteed to initiate scores of readers to the mysteries of Life, Literature and Art.

'... stories embodying the great themes of family, migration, homesickness, democracy, literature and art - absurd, macabre, sad, funny, enchanting.

Ann Williams

'"...the eye of the writer is not only descriptive but also critical. His language is contemporary, compact, at times even irreverent, but always vibrant and fascinating."

'Costas Plastiras (poet)' (Publication summary)

'Stories of the Snowy Mountains Scheme are many and varied, and Watershed Years tells some of them, from the viewpoints of several characters and the overall view of the Narrator.

'The Snowy Mountains regions represent a difference in the Australian landscape. There, in the 1950s and 1960s, people from seventy countries lived and worked together, learning about each others’ cultures. These were indeed watershed years, the beginning of a new stage in the ancient landscape.' (Publication summary)

'Yarema Sharey embarks on a holiday to Patonga. There he meets Claude Thornton, the 'man in violet.' A bond develops between the two men, a series of meetings and discussions take place, where Yarema learns of the nature of Claude's life problem. As a witness to Claude's story, Yarema's presence provides the element in the alchemy that will transform Claude from a man in bondage to a being free to explore his own uniqueness.

'The story unravels the conflict between an Australian father and son as seen through the eyes of a young man from Europe who brings a fresh analysis to an old problem. Sometimes, in the context of human affairs, a new perspective must be realised before growth can take place. Then false certainties can be challenged, bitterness questioned and rage replaced with realism.' (Publication summary)

'Stehlik writes from a far reaching experience gained from war, death, grief and ongoing life. In her writing, she portrays the woman and the migrant having lost loved ones as well as her homeland and gaining a new life in a far away country.' (Publication summary)

'These are stories about metamorphosis: babies transforming into poems; women into trees; and poets into dancers. They are stories to savour and linger over, tantalising puzzles that offer ever-unfolding possibilities rather than simple solutions.' (Publication summary)

'In 1971 the world was waking up.

'Even sleepy Antipodean suburbs were touched. It was a time when people stopped and looked at each other - the child at the adult, the adult at the child - and, for a moment, saw themselves.

'In The Maisonettes, fragments of individual stories converge within a momentary lapse of time, then part to rejoin the paths of their parallel lives.' (Publication summary)