A Charm of Powerful TroubleMy mother Emma, when she was a girl, dreamed of love, and she got it. She got the days and nights of bliss and the heady fragrance-filled summers, and two more daughters. Emma dreamed of love, and she got it. And, finally she got the moments of sick despair when she went out into the garden at night and rubbed leaves and dirt into her face and hair. She stood in the dark street and watched night after night the house where we stayed with Claudio and Stella while she was left alone. I was thirteen. My life, which I'd feared would be ordinary, had proved to be full of wonders, and I expected that more would come to me in the future. I'd witnessed a bat draw its last breath. I'd seen my sister, in the moonlight, lift up her voice in song. A red butterfly had blossomed from my own body. I had ridden as fast as the wind. I had drawn blood with my first kiss. In this sensuous, evocative novel, Joanne Horniman meditates on the forces between sisters, between parent and child, between lovers. She captures and releases the richness of each successive moment in layers of circling stories and vivid images, on themes of love, guilt, secrets and the mystery of growing up and growing older. |
Contents
M | 21 |
Queen of Swords | 41 |
Trailing Clouds of Glory | 63 |
Butterflies | 83 |
The Leather Woman | 99 |
Goblin Market | 121 |
Evil Gifts | 143 |
Kiss the Sky | 161 |
The Secret History | 179 |
Desires and Consequences | 209 |
Drawn from Memory | 237 |
Paris | 253 |
The Good Fairies | 263 |
About the author | 279 |
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Common terms and phrases
arms Artemis asked Aunt Em Aunt Em's beautiful Beth Beth's Blake Yeats Aubergine breath Byron Bay Catherine Chloe chook Claudio coat dark Das Kapital door drawing dress duffle coat Emma felt Emma saw Emma's eyes face father feel fingers floor Flora flowers front garden girl glanced goblin guitar hair hallway hand head henbane Henry Lawson imagined inside intentionally left blank Jimi Hendrix kissed kitchen knew lantana laughed Laura leaned leather woman legs light lived Lizzie Lizzie's looked mother mouth Mullumbimby never night paint Paris pulled Queen of Swords remembered round says seemed shoulder sister sitting skin sleep smell smile snake soft someone spangled drongo staring Stella stood story talking tell things thought told Tom Roberts took trees turned verandah walked wanted watching window wonderful wore Zucchini