The Grisly Wife is a 1993 Miles Franklin literary award-winning novel by the Australian author Rodney Hall.[1]

The Grisly Wife
First edition
AuthorRodney Hall
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherMacmillan, Australia
Publication date
1993
Publication placeAustralia
Media typePaperback
Pages261
ISBN0-7329-0776-4
OCLC29841439
Preceded byThe Second Bridegroom 
Followed byThe Island in the Mind 

The Miles Franklin Award Judges' Report called it "a novel with a rather surprising vision."[2]

This novel is the second book in The Yandilli Trilogy (also referred to as A Dream More Luminous Than Love), though the third to be published, following the novels Captivity Captive in 1988, and The Second Bridegroom in 1991.[1]

Synopsis

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Catherine Byrne marries self-proclaimed prophet Muley Moloch and leaves 19th-century England with him and his eight female disciples to search for paradise on earth in the wilds of Australia. But things do not work out as planned, as a shipwreck, illness and death cause the small group to fracture.

Critical reception

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Jeff Doyle in The Canberra Times noted: "Hall is not so basic nor simplistic to provide a kind of allegorical reading of these issues under his stories. No, such a naive, perhaps crassly simple, view is the job of a reviewer bent on hinting at the multiple ideas running through the book."[3]

Awards

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  • Miles Franklin Literary Award, 1994: winner
  • NBC Banjo Awards, NBC Banjo Award for Fiction, 1994: shortlisted[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Austlit - The Grisly Wife by Rodney Hall". Austlit. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  2. ^ Miles Franklin Award Judges' Report
  3. ^ ""Funny and tragic second coming in the New World"". The Canberra Times, 30 October 1983, p11. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  4. ^ "Austlit - The Grisly Wife - Awards". Austlit. Retrieved 18 July 2023.