Rhubarb

By: Craig Silvey

Narrated by: Humphrey Bower

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

Eleanor is blind and lives with her reclusive mother. Ewan is a cello player with agoraphobia. She is drawn to him through his music but cannot understand the difficulty he faces in forming a friendship. He does not understand her past nor the impact his music has on her. Amidst the heat of a Fremantle summer they stumble towards each other.

Sad, funny and affecting, and peopled with characters that live and breathe, Rhubarb is the first novel from a young writer with an astonishing talent. With his sublime and playful use of language and his uncanny ability to reveal the human condition in all its vulnerability and fragility, Craig Silvey has created an extraordinary contemporary Australian story.

©2004 Craig Silvey (P)2007 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

"The novel has the charm of early work such as Gustave Flaubert's Novembre and Jack Kerouac's The Subterranean." (The Australian)

"The playful words and images in this book are a sheer joy. More please." (The Sydney Morning Herald)

"Craig Silvey's poetic debut novel is a first-rate fit for audio, thanks to the deep, shivery voice of Humphrey Bower. Bower becomes blind Eleanor Rigby and agoraphobic cello player Ewan, two people who find each other. In addition, Bower voices all the lonely people in the world the couple inhabits, including Eleanor's mother, a TV addict; Frank, a depressed widower; Bruno, the faux-Italian; and others. The setting of Western Australia and the deep, dense journey into the consciousness of each character provide a sense of place, photographically accurate or dreamscape surreal. The novel is breathy in its staccato-short sentences and florid in its convoluted, lush language. Even its sometimes confusing plot shifts are overcome by Bower, who rides the story like a surfer on a magnificent wave." (AudioFile Magazine)