Red Heaven is a 2021 novel by the Australian author Nicolas Rothwell.[1]
It was the winner of the 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Fiction.[2]
Synopsis
The unnamed boy at the centre of this novel is raised by two aunts in Europe: Serghiana, who is the daughter of a Soviet general in the communist regime who goes on to work as a film producer in California; Madame Ady, who is a fashionable Viennese woman married to a famous conductor. How these two conflicting aunts try to influence the boy will have a profound effect on him for the rest of his life.
Notes
- Dedication: 'In memory of NS, brother spirit'
- Epigraph: "The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come."
Critical reception
In Australian Book Review reviewer Paul Giles noted: "Abjuring the idea of the novel as a mere social construction, Red Heaven attempts instead to resuscitate ‘ghosts’ buried deep within the narrator’s psyche." The reviewer concluded that the novel "is a work of genuine intellectual exploration, original and provocative on its own hermetic terms."[3]
Awards
- 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Fiction, winner[2]
- 2022 Queensland Literary Awards — The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year, shortlisted[4]
See also
References
- ^ "Red Heaven by Nicolas Rothwell". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ a b Burke, Kelly (13 December 2022). "Prime Minister's Literary awards 2022: Nicolas Rothwell and Mark Willacy win major prizes". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 December 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ ""Giving breath to the ghosts"". Australian Book Review, October 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ "Austlit — Red Heaven by Nicolas Rothwell — Awards". Austlit. Retrieved 14 January 2025.