Abyssinia

By: Ursula Dubosarsky

Narrated by: Rebecca Macauley

Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

This is the story of two sisters, Mary and Grace. As small children, growing up at their property called Abyssinia, they played with their dolls' house together, side by side, always. Grace loved Mary, and Mary loved Grace. But inseparable bonds in life can be unexpectedly shattered. When this happens to Grace, she is plunged into a dark and mesmerizing world, a world full of bells and the ringing sky, of odd little children, strange events, and frighteningly bizarre grown-ups. A desperately moving and ultimately uplifting tale of childhood innocence: this is Ursula Dubosarsky at her most brilliant and satisfying.

©2003 Ursula Dubosarsky (P)2004 Bolinda Publishing Pyt Ltd by arrangement with Penguin Group (Australia)

Critic Reviews

"Dubosarsky has written a masterful work, a haunting lament for all those lost souls....and for those they leave behind." (Magpies Magazine)

I felt cheated, too.

I also bought this since it was a daily pick, but wish I had waited to read reviews first! There was so much missing in this story! Yeah, the author made a bunch of connections, but it was all a waste of time. It was definitely surreal, but really pointless. I'm with Suzanne and Rahul, it didn't match the publisher's summary at all.

1 person found this helpful

I feel cheated

The publisher's summary does not seem to be about the book I heard. I agree with Rahul. I just wish I had read that review before I bought the book. What a waste.

1 person found this helpful

Disappointing and Unfulfilling

I downloaded this book because it was one of the daily picks. Though the summary states this is a "A desperately moving and ultimately uplifting tale of childhood innocence" I disagree. This was a bland, blind, jaunt through a thick fog into a cold damp cave. Not fun.

1 person found this helpful

Surreal tale

I found this book to be stimulating in terms of the many connections and relations between the story lines that the reader is made to make. It sets out to create a seemingly ordinary scene of an adopted orphan in the first part and a kidnapping in the second. But the fact that the one is related to the other and connected in various ways makes one wonder about reality itself. The haunting theme of the balance between what is lost and what is found leaves one wondering about life.

1 person found this helpful

Weirdness.

I just didn't get it....