The Different World of Fin Starling [Audio] http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Different-World-of-Fin-Starling-Audio-Elizabeth-Stead-Alan-King-Read-by/9781740944496

By Elizabeth Stead, Alan King (Read by)

Reviews

Fin Starling is an autistic boy living in the end-of-the-world town of Wagner’s Creek. The creek itself dried up years before, the residents number only 38 and the sole business is mutton birding. Fin’s mother is the local prostitute and his father’s identity, while suspected, is unknown. Fin likes straight lines and clean edges. His desire for the square and the contained makes him a champion gardener. He inspires (or infects) the town with his neatness, and all the residents develop a compulsion to clean. Wagner’s Creek consequently enters and wins the local Tidy Town award. Stead has written a memorable and brilliant book. The Different World of Fin Starling is delicately imagined—moving, funny, and inspiring all at once. The residents of Wagner’s Creek, living mundane and often bleak lives, are explored with such wit and craft that they appear with a kind of heroism and grandeur, while remaining altogether human and believable. But all is not quirky and light. The novel’s climax challenges our ideas of redemption and cultural notions that cleanliness is next to godliness. We are not to get too comfortable in this tale. Despite the town’s splendour, it has some very dark corners. This is a gem of a novel. It should find an adoring audience. Annelise Balsamo is the assistant editor of Labour and Industry. C. 2003 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors