While Becoming Kirrali Lewis is being marketed as a Young Adult novel, this big-hearted Australian story could fruit-fully be read in many other ways. Playwright Jane Harrison's début novel about a young indigenous woman's political and personal awakening could be labelled as historical fiction, indigenous writing, or even political fiction. Maureen McCarthy's recent novels The Convent (2012) and Stay With Me (2015), speak to a wider span of generations in similar ways.
Mike Shuttleworth reviews 'Becoming Kirrali Lewis' by Jane Harrison
Mike Shuttleworth
Published in November 2015, no. 376
Becoming Kirrali Lewis
by Jane Harrison
Magabala Books, $19.95 pb, 130 pp, 9781922142801
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Mike Shuttleworth
Mike Shuttleworth is the convenor for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Children’s and Young Adult sections. He was director of the Melbourne Writers Festival schools program from 2011-2015 and curated the exhibition Look! The art of Australian picture books today, for the State Library of Victoria.
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