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Good Reading : September 2014
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COVER STORY September 2014 main But are the ghosts just metaphors for the fears that arise from the hyperactive imagination of a sensitive child? Or did Favel, in her time in Tasmania, really hear or feel what she thinks could be spectral remnants from our colonial past? I decide not to ask her directly; too many authors evade the question, or offer unconvincing denials that suggest more a fear of ridicule than an outright rejection of a spirit realm. So I ask her if she has met many Tasmanians who believe in the existence of ghosts. ‘You won’t meet someone from Hobart who hasn’t got some kind of ghosty story about their house or a place they went to,’ Favel says. ‘Because it’s so unchanged from how it was 150 years ago. The houses are old and cold and creaky. They creak and moan. ‘The past is there, you can see it. It’s there in the worn stones that you walk along. It’s there throughout Salamanca. And back in the 80s, Salamanca was very different. It was very quiet, apart from on Saturdays. There were no cafes or bars. It was in a state of disrepair. We used to have to walk through there as kids. And it stayed with me, that fear of Kelly’s Steps – walking down into the past, into a dark sandstone alleyway that’s nearly 200 years old. ‘West Hobart is the same. Everybody’s got a ghosty story about strange things happening: books flying off the ...’ Favel stops herself. ‘I don’t know whether I believe in ghosts or not, but if you’re ever going to run into a ghost,’ Favel says with a laugh, ‘Hobart is the place that it will happen.’ Isla, one of the novel’s two narrators, has moved to Hobart with her mother and younger brother. They’re new to Tasmania and feel dislocated, but soon a young Danish sailor, Bo, comes into their lives. He’s the second narrator and is part of the crew of the Nella Dan, a n Antarctic research ship. He befriends Isla’s mother while on shore leave. He bakes birthday cakes and makes pancakes for the children, tends to Isla’s wounds when she gets spiked by cactus thorns, rolls on the grass with them and teaches them how to crack open a walnut. He also takes the wide-eyed kids for a visit onto the Nella Dan. Their father is absent – back on the mainland – and the kindly and genial Bo becomes the central adult-male presence in their lives. But he goes to sea regularly with the Nella Dan, so the children can’t always call upon him when they need him. The Nella Dan was a real ship that participated in Antarctic research. But in December 1987, on her last voyage, she was driven aground at Macquarie Island and severely damaged. The decision was made to scuttle her. As part of her research for the novel, Favel sailed to Antarctica on the Aurora Australis, and she also went to Denmark to talk to Nella’s for mer crew. ‘Pretty much every single person I talked to about the Nella Dan would cry at some point,’ Favel says. ‘That’s how much they loved her. And they still think about her every day. The houses of many of them are filled with pictures of her. She was very important to a lot ofpeople–andahome.Morethanahome–a friend. They loved her.’ Was there something special about the Nella Dan that made her crew feel so fond of her, or was it just the scuttling of her that evoked these deep sentiments? ‘I think that you feel fond of any ship that carries you safely. It’s a strange thing that happens. I went on the Aurora Australis to Antarctica, and I was deter mined that I wouldn’t love her the way I loved the Nella Dan. So I went on her, and I thought at first that she was too modern and plastic. But within a week I was patting her bulkhead and saying “Good girl!”. I was totally in love. Favel Parrett GOOD READING SEPTEMBER 2014 25 24_26_cover_story.indd 25 8/08/14 3:57 PM
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