Jenn J McLeod - Australian Fiction

We’re told to not judge a book by its cover.

You also can’t judge a book by size.

This little beauty from Kim Kelly is a mere 92 pages, but the story and the surprises she packs into it makes for a powerful, magical and mesmerising read.

What starts out as a young girl’s interaction with her Grandma becomes a journey back in time. While Kim takes us to a century-ago Ireland, my personal favourite parts of this story was walking the streets of early Sydney with the characters — and, believe it or not, those 92 pages have lots of characters. Yet another testament to the cleverness of this author.

I’m not going to give anything away here (you have to read this book) but towards the end I not only started to understand Kim’s passion for this tale, but also how some things are meant to be. Like, for instance, Kim taking this latest work to The Author People, a new, innovative publishing house. (Here is the link to Kim’s book at The Author People.)

There is no better proof that this partnership was meant to be than the story behind the story — and the cover that is so much more than just an image and a title.

Here is Kim to tell us about that…… (and you can check out my review below.)

When my husband Dean and I first saw what would become our little patch of paddock-paradise back in 2014, it looked like the refuge of peace and beauty we’d been searching so long for, but it was the wild chicory blooming like sprinklings of blue sky along the verges of the track outside the property that whispered especially to me: you’ll write amazing things here. 

And I have been writing like a full-on mad lady ever since – I’ve never been so inspired. But like all writers do from time to time, I found myself one day asking why I write at all. What is this thing inside me that makes me strive so hard to put words on a page, forging them into tales? I’d just had my fourth novel published but, in the corporate crunch of the publishing biz, I felt as if the worth of all the love I poured into my stories was being measured only in sales spreadsheets. 

My mind began to cloud over with the most awful doubt, until a vision of my grandmother came to me. She was standing with her back to me, at her kitchen sink, about to tell me a story – and suddenly my mind was alive and bright again with all the stories she told me when I was small. Stories of being poor and Irish in Sydney in the early 1900s, of mischief and magic, and the wisdom of popping on a pretty frock against just about all ills. It was as if my grandmother was paying me a little visit to remind me that my stories don’t just belong to me. They come from the centuries of love and wonder and courage that put me here on this earth, on this particular patch of paradise. Wild Chicory then poured out of me in a great rush – an expression of who I am, where I’ve come from and why I do what I do.

Around the same time, an old publishing colleague, Lou Johnson, was asking herself similar questions about the process of making books and connecting with readers, masterminding her new company, The Author People. Almost at the moment I finished Wild Chicory, our paths crossed again and – wham. Our joining forces on this adventure feels so uncannily right, there must be some magic at play here, too. 

In hunting around for cover images, I sent Lou a photograph of the wild chicory growing along the track outside my place, to show her what set off my inspiration. Then she sent me a photograph of her daughter Ruby. I shouted out when I saw her – and turned my laptop round for my husband to see – because Ruby wasn’t just perfect. She was Nell – the little girl in my Wild Chicory. The little girl sprung from the stories my grandmother told me, and from the love we shared.

Synchronicity makes for a stunning cover.

Take one publisher (Lou), her darling, Douglas Frost (photographer), delightful daughter Ruby, add Kim Kelly’s own wild chicory field then ask designer, Alissa Dinallo, to bring it all to life.

 

Jenn’s Review of Wild Chicory by Kim Kelly

 

I’ve never met Kim Kelly, author, other than on Facebook. I have read and enjoyed her previous published novels, so when the publisher (The Author People) asked if I’d like to read her latest offering, Wild Chicory, I didn’t hesitate. At only ninety-two pages I figured a novella would be a short read.

As expected, I read the ninety-two pages in one sitting. What I didn’t expect were tears—mine! Not because the ending was a sad one, but because the significance of Brigid Boszko’s storytelling became clear to me in the final chapter. (I think I even gasped.)

Wild Chicory is absolutely remarkable reading and a rich and wonderful history lesson that every child—every person—in Australia should read. (If I had been given this at school instead of Jamaica Inn I might have fallen in love earlier with reading, and writing, Aussie stories!)

For the reader, Wild Chicory is a step back in time. A celebration of Australia and (what Kim, herself, describes as) ‘the economic refugees who have made and continue to make our country what it is: a colourful patchwork of beauty and bigotry both, all sewn together with love’.

For any writers out there: Wild Chicory is a short and extremely enjoyable lesson in clever crafting, superb structure, and the perfect use of POV. Like her character, Brigid Boszko, Kim Kelly is wonderful storyteller and ‘her’ story is so real I wanted more pages to read.

My opinion:  This novella is the author’s tour de force. With a sublime narrative voice Wild Chicory is the kind of story that lingers long after the last page.

WIN one of three ebooks (from iTunes only).

Leave a comment below. Maybe tell us your favourite wildflower (or weed, because my fave–the gossamer ball of the dandelion–is classed a weed by some).

 Buy links here. eBook available and paperback (and it is so pretty).

Here is Kim on herphoto shoot and I am pretty sure the photographer is saying something like: “Gee, Kim, you are this much shorter than I imagined.” *wink*