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NIGHTS IN THE ASYLUM
If you believe that you will never need to seek asylum, think again.
Catastrophe can turn a comfortable life inside out and leave any one of
us stranded, dependent on the kindness of strangers, or vulnerable to their
cruelty.
Set in a mining town in the Australian outback,
Nights in the Asylum
is the
story of three people seeking shelter. Stricken with grief and guilt following
the death of her daughter, Miri flees the city for the quiet calm of Havana
Gardens, a once fine but now dilapidated mansion built for her grandmother. On
the road she rescues Aziz, an Afghan refugee on the run from detention; then,
in the attic of the old house, Miri discovers Suzette Moran and her baby
daugher hiding, and grants them
refuge.
Slowly, in the hot confined spaces of the house, the three runaways unravel
their stories, but when Suzette's policeman husband comes looking for her, it
sparks a chain of events that will disrupt their already fragile peace.
AWARDS
Nights in the Asylum
was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for
best first book. It was the winner of the Nita B. Kibble Literary Award for
Women Writers 2008.
PUBLISHING DATES
Nights In The Asylum
was published in paperback by
Vintage (Random House Australia-
(top right)
on
2nd April 2007,
and in hardback by
Picador UK
(right) on
18th May
2007. The paperback edition will be available in the UK from the
1st May 2008.
REVIEWS
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A tale about home, loss, survival and what asylum - in all its forms - really
means. Lefevre's debut novel succeeds in getting right under your skin
Helen Chappell
Tribune
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"Nights in the Asylum
is subtle, rich, wise and seductive. ... it's a gorgeous act of defiance to
those who say literary fiction is in trouble."
Nicholas Jose
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"Nights in the Asylum
is an interesting and accomplished book, far from didactic
in its portrayal of mistreated refugees, or domestic violence, Aziz's and
Zett's stories create a powerful undertow beneath and alongside Miri's
grief."
Dorothy Johnston
Canberra Times
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"The stories spin out in broken form, like a handful of photographs splayed on
a table...in between these narratives are snapshots of other people's lives,
tiny bright moments of existence that illuminate the.major tales and cast
shadows in the corners of the stories we are following."
Kay Sexton
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" ...this is an important Australian novel which addresses the contemporary
dilemma of the asylum seeker. The novel comes at a time when the refugee issue
is transforming from one of general apathy towards 'queue-jumpers' around the
time of the SIEVX
(click
here
to vist the SIEVX website)
to a burgeoning collective empathy (perhaps guilt) towards
refugees genuinely seeking asylum in this country."
Rob Walker
compulsive reader.com
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"Lefevre writes beautiful, smooth sentences that at times reminded me of
(Michael) Ondaatje's. She lays out her narrative, too, with similar
tranquillity and poise."
Delia Falconer
Australian Literary Review
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