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 reminds us why taking a side matters.
Praise for Shell
'Kristina Olsson is such a graceful, wise and perceptive writer. The woman's massive heart is one big literary taproot feeding all of us answers about the Australian condition' Trent Dalton, bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe
'A luminous look at a city at a time of change, a time when the building of the Sydney Opera House was a reach for greatness.' The New York Times
'Olsson's writing is beautiful, captivating, and is enough in itself to recommend this book … Her descriptions are vivid, evocative.' New York Journal of Books
'A classic in the making.' Australian Financial Review
'A shimmering love letter to Sydney, with the husk of the emerging Opera House its beating heart … Required reading.' Australian Women's Weekly Kristina Olsson is a journalist and the award-winning author of the novels Shell, In One Skin, and The China Garden, and two works of nonfiction, Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir and Kilroy was Here. She lives in Brisbane, Australia. 'A luminous look at a city at a time of change, a time when the building of the Sydney Opera House was a reach for greatness.' 'Olsson's writing is beautiful, captivating, and is enough in itself to recommend this book … Her descriptions are vivid, evocative.' 'A classic in the making.' 'Evocative, learned and moving...' 'This is a novel with a sharp eye, a warm heart and sprawling ambitions, painted on the most splendid canvas of all.' 'Beautiful and glowing … a book that glows with golden light, with arguments about art and belief, while it is also infused with the politics of its characters and its time.' 'Shell is a novel packed with ideas, rich in detail and dense with research … as clear and delicate as liquid glass … ' 'A beautifully crafted, spellbinding story of love, loss and identity, set in the shadow of the Vietnam War, for readers who loved All the Light We Cannot See and The Goldfinch.' 'This narrative of war and hope, the old and the new world, makes Shell a novel of energy and enlightenment, and, to boot, a source of delightful reading.' 'A timely reminder of the importance of making a stand on the things that really matter...' 'Olsson uses the building of the Sydney Opera House as the backdrop for a contemplative story of personal guilt and political upheaval.' 'It has a sensory aesthetic and a gentle fluidity.' 'Olsson delivers a brilliant snapshot of the swinging sixties, a poignant story of family and of emotional upheaval, with hope running like a thread of gold throughout all that happens.' 'Olsson's subtle and nuanced tale displays how deeply the past - or at least one's perception of it - informs life in the present.' 'A beautifully crafted novel about a fascinating time in our history. There is a luminous
