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y separately published work icon The Divine Wind single work   novel   historical fiction   young adult  
Issue Details: First known date: 1998... 1998 The Divine Wind
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Friendship is a slippery notion. We lose friends as we change and our friends don't, or as we form other alliances, or as we betray our friends or are ourselves betrayed ...

'Alice, Hartley, Mitsy and Jamie are kids growing up in Broome before the Second World War. Their lives, although very different, are bound by friendship. Hartley and Alice Penrose are the children of an uneducated pearling master and a cultivated, disgruntled mother. Mitsy Sennosuke is Japanese, the daughter of Zeke, a diver working for Hartley and Alice's father, and Sadako, who makes soy sauce in a tin shed factory. Jamie Kilian is the son of a local magistrate, recently moved north from the city. Together, they unconsciously cross the boundaries of class and race, as they swim, joke and watch films in the cinema in Sheba Lane.

'But these happy, untroubled times end when lives are lost in a terrible cyclone, Alice falls for a wealthy cattleman pilot, a young woman is assaulted, and Hartley and Jamie compete for the love of Mitsy. The Second World War brings further strain into their lives. The four friends are no longer children but old enough to fight for their country. As Japanese bombs begin to fall like silver rain on northern Australia, loyalties are divided and friendships take on an altogether different form …

'This thrilling and beautifully written new novel from Garry Disher evokes an era of Australia caught up in the events of war and its effects on people torn apart from all they know and hold dear in childhood.' (Source: Publisher's website)

Reading Australia

Reading Australia

This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.

Unit Suitable For AC: Year 9 (NSW Stage 5)

Duration Four to five weeks.

Themes

Australian history, coming of age, family, friendship, History, identity, love, multiculturalism, racism, sex, war

General Capabilities

Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Personal and social

Cross-curriculum Priorities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it contains Japanese characters.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Hodder Headline , 1998 .
      image of person or book cover 5043968345692807629.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 151p.
      ISBN: 0733605265
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Sceptre , 2001 .
      image of person or book cover 5017432604925990705.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 151p.
      ISBN: 0733612911
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Hachette Australia , 2002 .
      image of person or book cover 9205634717733492879.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 160p.
      Note/s:
      • Published: 1st October 2002
      ISBN: 9780733615900
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Arthur A. Levine Books ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 5045067905301819679.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Alternative title: The Divine Wind : A Love Story
      Extent: 176p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published summer 2002.

      ISBN: 0439369150
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Lothian , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 6562418741109338275.png
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 160p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 27 August 2019
      ISBN: 9780734419316
      Series: y separately published work icon Lothian Classics Sydney : Lothian , 2019- 19045173 2019 series - publisher
Alternative title: Den guddommelige vind
Language: Danish
    • c
      Denmark,
      c
      Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Gyldendal ,
      2000 .
      image of person or book cover 5466080146649119392.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 155p.
      ISBN: 8700458287

Other Formats

  • Also braille, sound recording.

Works about this Work

[Essay] : The Divine Wind Alice Pung , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Australia 2013-;

'A generation living in peacetime is inclined to devalue the identity and place of soldiers. In Australia, active soldiers have been maligned as meddlesome interlopers in foreign affairs (if they are our soldiers) or combatant terrorists (if they are not). In his book Secret Men’s Business (1998), John Marsden wrote that going to war used to be seen as a marker of adulthood. We forget that war was once how individual personality and collective character was formed. We forget that many of our compatriots came here because of war, that there are former child soldiers living in Australia, and that literature and the armed forces didn’t always occupy such opposing worlds.' (Introduction)

y separately published work icon Re-Visiting Historical Fiction for Young Readers : The Past through Modern Eyes Kim Wilson , New York (City) : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group , 2011 Z1886683 2011 single work criticism 'This study is concerned with how readers are positioned to interpret the past in historical fiction for children and young adults. Looking at literature published within the last thirty to forty years, Wilson identifies and explores a prevalent trend for re-visioning and rewriting the past according to modern social and political ideological assumptions. Fiction within this genre, while concerned with the past at the level of content, is additionally concerned with present views of that historical past because of the future to which it is moving. Specific areas of discussion include the identification of a new sub-genre: Living history fiction, stories of Joan of Arc, historical fiction featuring agentic females, the very popular Scholastic Press historical journal series, fictions of war, and historical fiction featuring multicultural discourses.

Wilson observes specific traits in historical fiction written for children — most notably how the notion of positive progress into the future is nuanced differently in this literature in which the concept of progress from the past is inextricably linked to the protagonist's potential for agency and the realization of subjectivity. The genre consistently manifests a concern with identity construction that in turn informs and influences how a metanarrative of positive progress is played out. This book engages in a discussion of the functionality of the past within the genre and offers an interpretative frame for the sifting out of the present from the past in historical fiction for young readers.' (Publisher's blurb)
y separately published work icon Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature Kathryn James , New York (City) : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group , 2009 Z1790145 2009 single work criticism
Messages From the Inside? Multiculturalism in Contemporary Children's Literature Sharyn Pearce , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lion and the Unicorn , April vol. 27 no. 2 2003; (p. 235-250) Fact and Fiction : Readings in Australian Literature 2008; (p. 252-268)
In this article Pearce contends that multiculturalism has been a part of Australia's official discourse for almost thirty years (at time of writing). She claims that the progress of multiculturalism can be traced through books for children and young adults. To support this argument Pearce refers to an article and a chapter by John Stephens on multiculturalism to frame her paper. Initially, Pearce outlines the two main stages of multiculturalism in children's texts identified by Stephens. The first stage contains texts written by authors from the dominant Anglo-Celtic majority and feature focalisers and narrators from that same group. The second stage sees a shift to include characters and narrators from ethnic minority groups which provide an 'insider perspective' but such texts are still usually mediated through Anglo-Celtic authors. Pearce then proposes a third stage in which texts use 'authentic' voices created by authors from minority backgrounds. Rather than focus on aspects of 'difference' the characters' cultural heritage is incidental, rather than pivotal, to their developing subjectivities. The third stage includes texts in which, according to Pearce, ethnicity is not the marker of cultural difference, but an accepted part of Australian life.
Untitled Donna Gardiner , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 14 no. 2 2000; (p. 60)

— Review of The Divine Wind Garry Disher , 1998 single work novel
Untitled Laurie Copping , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 42 no. 4 1998; (p. 26)

— Review of The Divine Wind Garry Disher , 1998 single work novel
Untitled Helen Purdie , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 13 no. 4 1998; (p. 36)

— Review of The Divine Wind Garry Disher , 1998 single work novel
Untitled Donna Gardiner , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 14 no. 2 2000; (p. 60)

— Review of The Divine Wind Garry Disher , 1998 single work novel
Rediscovering a Lost Past Stephen Matthews , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 November 1998; (p. 22)

— Review of Maggie Jackson's Kid G. K. Saunders , 1998 single work children's fiction ; The Divine Wind Garry Disher , 1998 single work novel ; Bring Back the Songs Elizabeth Hutchins , 1998 single work novel
A Sweeping Tale of Broome Katharine England , 1998 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 5 September 1998; (p. 23)

— Review of The Divine Wind Garry Disher , 1998 single work novel ; The Drowning Dream Peter Burke , 1998 single work novel
The Children's Book Council of Australia Annual Awards 1999 1999 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 43 no. 3 1999; (p. 3-12)
Messages From the Inside? Multiculturalism in Contemporary Children's Literature Sharyn Pearce , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Lion and the Unicorn , April vol. 27 no. 2 2003; (p. 235-250) Fact and Fiction : Readings in Australian Literature 2008; (p. 252-268)
In this article Pearce contends that multiculturalism has been a part of Australia's official discourse for almost thirty years (at time of writing). She claims that the progress of multiculturalism can be traced through books for children and young adults. To support this argument Pearce refers to an article and a chapter by John Stephens on multiculturalism to frame her paper. Initially, Pearce outlines the two main stages of multiculturalism in children's texts identified by Stephens. The first stage contains texts written by authors from the dominant Anglo-Celtic majority and feature focalisers and narrators from that same group. The second stage sees a shift to include characters and narrators from ethnic minority groups which provide an 'insider perspective' but such texts are still usually mediated through Anglo-Celtic authors. Pearce then proposes a third stage in which texts use 'authentic' voices created by authors from minority backgrounds. Rather than focus on aspects of 'difference' the characters' cultural heritage is incidental, rather than pivotal, to their developing subjectivities. The third stage includes texts in which, according to Pearce, ethnicity is not the marker of cultural difference, but an accepted part of Australian life.
y separately published work icon Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature Kathryn James , New York (City) : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group , 2009 Z1790145 2009 single work criticism
The Skill is the Power to Thrill Jenna Price , 1999 single work biography
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 17 April 1999; (p. 3-4)
y separately published work icon Garry Disher's The Divine Wind Insight Text Guides – The Divine Wind Sue Sciortino , Mentone : Insight Publications , 2000 6897076 2000 single work criticism

'Insight Text Guides – The Divine Wind is designed to help secondary English students understand and analyse the text. This comprehensive study guide to Garry Disher's novel contains detailed character and chapter analysis and explores genre, structure, themes and language. Essay questions and sample answers help to prepare students for creating written responses to the text.' (Publisher's blurb)

Last amended 16 Apr 2020 10:59:02
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  • Broome, Kimberley area, North Western Australia, Western Australia,
  • 1941
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