{"id":75836,"date":"2017-08-31T16:18:34","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T05:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=75836"},"modified":"2017-09-01T12:55:17","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T01:55:17","slug":"debut-novel-called-heartbreaking-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2017\/08\/31\/debut-novel-called-heartbreaking-real\/","title":{"rendered":"The debut novel called “heartbreaking and real”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rain<\/a>
\nRain Birds<\/em><\/a> by Harriet McKnight is a powerful and lyrical novel about love, grief and loss, one that examines personal tragedy as set against global and environmental responsibilities, and how we negotiate our often-conflicting ideals.<\/p>\n

Harriet McKnight’s work has been shortlisted for the 2014 Overland VU Short Story Prize, the 2015 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, and the 2016 Overland Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize. She works as Managing Editor of The Canary Press. Rain Birds<\/em> is her debut novel. Harriet now answers the Booktopia Book Guru’s Ten Terrifying Questions.<\/p>\n

1. To begin with why don\u2019t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born in Gundaroo, NSW but spent my adolescence on the South Coast of NSW which I think of now as \u2018home\u2019. My three siblings and I were home-schooled briefly by our mum and then went to local schools. I lived in Melbourne for 8 years and then moved to Darwin in May with my partner where we adopted a kelpie-dingo cross called Poppy.<\/p>\n

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was 12, I wanted to be a writer or a park ranger. When I was eighteen, I wanted to be a musician. I\u2019m not yet 30 but I hope that I want to do whatever it is I\u2019m doing then!<\/p>\n

\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

That the way I felt and thought at eighteen was always going to be the way I felt and thought.<\/p>\n

4. What were three big events \u2013 in the family circle or on the world stage or in your reading life, for example \u2013 you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced you in your career path?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The novel Playing Beatie Bow<\/em><\/a> by Ruth Park was given to me by my mother and had a huge impact on me as a child.<\/p>\n

The film Only God Forgives<\/em><\/a> by Nicolas Winding Refn is wonderful. I see it as a lesson in the ability to communicate the incommunicable through silence and the non-verbal, as well as the power of symbolism and attention to aesthetics. I think about it a lot.<\/p>\n

Anything by Australian musician Ainslie Wills but in particular her album You go your way, I\u2019ll go mine<\/em>. If I had been a musician, I\u2019d want to be her.<\/p>\n

Can I sneak another one in? The novel Revolutionary Road<\/em><\/a> by Richard Yates. In a tradition of novels that explore things left unsaid, this one is more powerful than any other.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5. Considering the innumerable electronic media avenues open to you – blogs, online newspapers, TV, radio, etc \u2013 why have you chosen to write a book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say that innumerable artistic avenues are open to me! If I could have been a painter I would have done it in a heartbeat. I think that every person eventually finds their means of expression whether it\u2019s music, baking, raising kids, building houses, tour guiding, whatever. We all have a way to make our mark on the world and the one that was open to me was writing. This story became a novel because it led the way and expanded itself enough for me to do so.<\/p>\n

6. Please tell us about your latest book\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rain Birds<\/em><\/a> is set in the remote East Gippsland town of Boney Point. It follows two narrative threads that become increasingly intertwined towards the end of the book.<\/p>\n

The first thread involves Pina who has lived in Boney Point with her husband, Alan, for thirty years when he begins to develop early on-set Alzheimer\u2019s. Their story charts the progression of his disease and Pina\u2019s coming to terms with her changing role in the relationship when a flock of black cockatoos take up residence in the bush around their property. Pina is desperate to find indicators of the old Alan and becomes convinced the birds are drawing that out of him.<\/p>\n

The second thread of the novel involves Arianna who is a conservation biologist living temporarily in Boney Point. Her story follows her undertaking a reintroduction program of a subspecies of black cockatoos to the area. She has a great deal personally riding on the success of the project and becomes increasingly unstable when the flock leaves the designated nesting area and takes up residence near Pina\u2019s house.<\/p>\n