Shell

A big, bold and hauntingly beautiful story that captures a defining moment in Australia's history.

Everywhere he looked he saw what Utzon saw. The drama of harbour and horizon, and at night, the star-clotted sky. It held the shape of the possible, of a promise made and waiting to be kept ...

In 1965, as Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s striking vision for the Sydney Opera House transforms the skyline and unleashes a storm of controversy, the shadow of the Vietnam War and a deadly lottery threaten to tear the country apart.

Journalist Pearl Keogh, exiled to the women’s pages after being photographed at an anti-war protest, is desperate to find her two missing brothers and save them from the draft. Axel Lindquist, a visionary young glass artist from Sweden, is obsessed with creating a unique work that will do justice to Utzon’s towering masterpiece.

In this big, bold and hauntingly beautiful portrait of art and life, Shell captures a world on the brink of seismic change through the eyes of two unforgettable characters caught in the eye of the storm.

And it reminds us why taking a side matters.

About the Author

Kristina Olsson is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir won the 2014 Kibble Literary Award, the 2014 NSW Premier’s Literary Award, the 2013 Queensland Literary Award and the 2014 Western Australia Premier’s Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Stella Prize, the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the 2013 Australian Human Rights Commission Literature Award. Her other works include the biography, Kilroy Was Here, and novels In One Skin and The China Garden.