No More Boats by Felicity Castagna
No More Boats tackles the fear of refugees head on, portraying the anxieties of a man who was once a migrant himself, brought to breaking point by the Tampa crisis, when the nation itself is thrown into a xenophobic frame of mind.
It is 2001. 438 refugees sit in a boat called Tampa off the shoreline of Australia while the TV and radio scream out that the country is being flooded, inundated, overrun by migrants. Antonio Martone, once a migrant himself, has been forced to retire, his wife has moved in with the woman next door, his daughter runs off with strange men, his deadbeat son is hiding in the garden smoking marijuana.
Amidst his growing paranoia, the ghost of his dead friend shows up and commands him to paint ‘No More Boats’ in giant letters across his front yard. The Prime Minister of Australia keeps telling Antonio that we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstance in which they come, but Antonio’s not sure he wants to think about all those things that led him to get on a boat and come to Australia in the first place. A man and a nation unravel together.
About the Author
Felicity Castagna is the author of the award-winning novel The Incredible Here and Now, and its stage adaptation which will premiere at The National Theatre of Parramatta in 2017. Her collection of short stories Small Indiscretions was named an ABR book of the year. Her work has appeared on ABC Radio and TV as well as in national journals and newspapers. She holds a PhD from Western Sydney University and has served as the National Ambassador for Literacy and as a director at WestWords. She runs the storytelling series Studio Stories.
Format: Paperback | 232 pages
Dimensions (cm): 21.1 x 14.4 x 1.6 | 274g
Publication Date: 01 Jun 2017
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing
Publication City/Country: Artarmon, SYD, Australia
Language: English
Edition Number: 1
ISBN10: 1925336301
ISBN13: 9781925336306
Condition: Good
A book that has been read but is in good condition. Some minor damage to the cover including very minor scuff marks along the edges, and a faint crease running down the length of the front cover, but no holes or tears. All pages are undamaged with no creasing or tearing, no pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text and no writing in margins. No missing pages.