Australian author Karen Turner has returned with her stunning third novel, Stormbird, which transports the reader back to wartime Britain, a place depicted in many of Karen’s earlier childhood memories.
Set in Yorkshire in 1941, Stormbird tells the story of an unexpected relationship that builds between a British war widow and a German fighter pilot, shot down and in hiding, despite their countries’ bitter differences.
For Karen, creating war-time Britain meant reliving some of the tales told to her by her mother and grandmother.
“My mother was born in Yorkshire in 1941, and many of the anecdotal imagery and descriptions of Leeds and the villages, what was going on, and what life was like, was exactly as my mum described. Growing up in the rubble during the war was just what they did; just as we go to the park today,” she says.
“My grandmother drove an ambulance around Leeds during the bombing raids; it was incredibly full-on. Everybody pitched in, and I’ve tried to capture that chaos in the telling of Stormbird.”
Published by Fisher King Publishing, Stormbird represents five years of Karen’s writing life and follows her previously published books Torn (2013) and Inviolate (2014). Prior to this, Karen published a compilation of short stories, All That and Everything, many of which have won literary awards, including the Society of Women Writers Vic Biennial Literary Award, and the Free XpressSion Literary Competition.
Originally intended to complete a trilogy, Stormbird can be read independently or alongside Torn and Inviolate.
Stormbird, as well as Torn and Inviolate can be purchased at select bookstores, including Dymocks, as well as via Amazon, Booktopia, Book Depository and other e-retailers.
Onya Magazine has four copies of Stormbird to giveaway. To be in with a chance to win, simply email info@onyamagazine.com with the subject line ‘STORMBIRD’ and place your full name and postal address in the body of the email.
The winner will be selected at random and notified via email on Friday June 26, 2020.
