★ 05/24/2021
Dalton (Boy Swallows Universe ) delivers a spellbinding saga of survival and transformation in WWII Australia. Before seven-year-old Molly Hook’s mother dies, she makes Molly promise to make her heart as rock-hard as her surroundings—adding that Molly can always find her up in the sky, “where the best gifts come from.” In the first of many fabulist moments, Molly’s grandfather Tom Berry’s gold-prospecting pan appears as if fallen from the clouds; it’s inscribed with riddles that will guide her to an Aboriginal elder, Longcoat Bob, who the family believed had cursed them for Tom’s theft of gold from Bob’s ancestral lands. Molly excitedly takes it home, where her hard-drinking gold hunter turned gravedigger father, Horace, slugs her in the jaw and her uncle Aubrey throws away the pan, behavior Molly attributes to the curse. Five years after her mother’s death, a Japanese bombing raid kills Horace and destroys their house, and Molly flees with Aubrey’s girlfriend in search of Longcoat Bob. Along the way, a stranded Japanese fighter pilot becomes their protector, and the three continue on a quest marked by trials and wonders while being pursued by Aubrey. Dalton provides exquisite descriptions of deserts, waterfalls, mazes of stone monoliths, and Aboriginal cave paintings, and creates a courageous, unsentimental heroine in Molly. This is a wonder. (July)
“A work of shimmering originality and energy, with extraordinary characters and a clever, thrilling plot. . . . unputdownable.” — Sydney Morning Herald
“A spellbinding saga of survival and transformation in WWII Australia. . . . This is a wonder.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Achingly beautiful and poetic in its melancholy, All Our Shimmering Skies is a majestic and riveting tale of curses and the true meaning of treasure.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Magical. . . . goodness, hope, and a bit of magic are pitted against gritty realities. The result is unquestionably appealing.” — Library Journal
“Dalton is an author of 19th-century expansiveness, one with a sense that intelligence, talent for characterization and sheer narrative brio can still be the whole cloth of the writer’s ambition. . . . it is storytelling manna, fallen straight from the Territorian skies.” — The Australian
“T he follow-up to Boy Swallows Universe we could have never imagined, but the one Dalton was destined to gift us.It’s a new tale of the Australian Gothic crossed with a psychotropic cowboy movie.It’s a story of heroes and villains, foxes and water buffalo, fighter planes and birds of prey, real magic and real love, epitaphs and aphorisms, lost treasure and lost life.It’s a love letter to the nation. It’s your favorite childhood adventure story dictated by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and William Shakespeare, with a score by Franz Liszt. It’s dead serious.It’s completely ridiculous.It’s all of these things and more.” — Booktopia (Australia)
PRAISE FOR BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE: "Extraordinary and beautiful storytelling." — The Guardian
"The best book I read this decade." — Sharon Van Etten in Rolling Stone
“This thrilling novel takes you along for the ride.” — New York Times Book Review
“Boy Swallows Universe hypnotizes you with wonder, and then hammers you with heartbreak. . . . Eli’s remarkably poetic voice and his astonishingly open heart take the day. They enable him to carve out the best of what’s possible from the worst of what is, which is the miracle that makes this novel marvelous.” — Washington Post
“A splashy, profane, and witty debut.” — USA Today
“An electric novel. . . . a lively, funny affirmation of the human instinct for survival.” — The Times (London)
PRAISE FOR BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE: "Extraordinary and beautiful storytelling."
Dalton is an author of 19th-century expansiveness, one with a sense that intelligence, talent for characterization and sheer narrative brio can still be the whole cloth of the writer’s ambition. . . . it is storytelling manna, fallen straight from the Territorian skies.
“T he follow-up to Boy Swallows Universe we could have never imagined, but the one Dalton was destined to gift us.It’s a new tale of the Australian Gothic crossed with a psychotropic cowboy movie.It’s a story of heroes and villains, foxes and water buffalo, fighter planes and birds of prey, real magic and real love, epitaphs and aphorisms, lost treasure and lost life.It’s a love letter to the nation. It’s your favorite childhood adventure story dictated by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and William Shakespeare, with a score by Franz Liszt. It’s dead serious.It’s completely ridiculous.It’s all of these things and more.
An electric novel. . . . a lively, funny affirmation of the human instinct for survival.
A splashy, profane, and witty debut.
A splashy, profane, and witty debut.
Boy Swallows Universe hypnotizes you with wonder, and then hammers you with heartbreak. . . . Eli’s remarkably poetic voice and his astonishingly open heart take the day. They enable him to carve out the best of what’s possible from the worst of what is, which is the miracle that makes this novel marvelous.
"The best book I read this decade."
Sharon Van Etten in Rolling Stone
A work of shimmering originality and energy, with extraordinary characters and a clever, thrilling plot. . . . unputdownable.
Achingly beautiful and poetic in its melancholy, All Our Shimmering Skies is a majestic and riveting tale of curses and the true meaning of treasure.
Booklist (starred review)
This thrilling novel takes you along for the ride.
New York Times Book Review
Boy Swallows Universe hypnotizes you with wonder, and then hammers you with heartbreak. . . . Eli’s remarkably poetic voice and his astonishingly open heart take the day. They enable him to carve out the best of what’s possible from the worst of what is, which is the miracle that makes this novel marvelous.
07/01/2021
In a harsh and magical novel set in Darwin, Australia, at the start of World War II, Molly, a gravedigger's daughter, has inherited her mother's dreamy disposition. Her mother died when Molly was seven, leaving her to fend for herself in a 20th-century Dickensian environment, cared for by her brutal, heavily drinking father Horace, and often her equally drunken and brutal uncle Aubrey. The family is also reputed to have been cursed by Longcoat Bob, an Aboriginal shaman whose gold was possibly stolen by her prospector grandfather. Molly's only escapes are her imagination and the poetry books in her late mother's library. After the Japanese bomb Darwin, killing Horace, Molly sets off to find Longcoat Bob to ask him to remove the alleged curse. She's joined by Greta, a German actress and sometimes exotic dancer, and eventually by Yukio, a gentle-spirited Japanese pilot who crashes his plane rather than continue to kill. As they venture ever deeper into the outback, their journey takes on mythic proportions. VERDICT In this follow-up to Dalton's LJ best-booked debut, Boy Swallows Universe , goodness, hope, and a bit of magic are pitted against gritty realities. The result is unquestionably appealing, though somewhat diminished by a number of characters who seem like period movie clichés.—Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA
Narrator Ruby Rees’s animated voice captures the wonder in Dalton’s novel of adventure, courage, and redemption in WWII Australia. Twelve-year-old Molly Hook lives a miserable life. She is abused by her cruel Uncle Aubrey and her distant father, who are plagued by alcoholism and intergenerational trauma. When Japanese bombs destroy their home, Molly and her unlikely band of companions—fierce actress Greta and Japanese pilot Yukio—set off to find Aboriginal elder Longcoat Bob, who Molly believes has cursed their family. Rees’s outstanding characterizations bring out Aubrey’s venom, Greta’s insouciance, and Yukio’s contemplative soul. Rees fully inhabits Molly, communicating her irrepressible joy and forgiving spirit in the face of unbearable tragedy. This magical and wholly engaging audiobook should not be missed. S.A.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Narrator Ruby Rees’s animated voice captures the wonder in Dalton’s novel of adventure, courage, and redemption in WWII Australia. Twelve-year-old Molly Hook lives a miserable life. She is abused by her cruel Uncle Aubrey and her distant father, who are plagued by alcoholism and intergenerational trauma. When Japanese bombs destroy their home, Molly and her unlikely band of companions—fierce actress Greta and Japanese pilot Yukio—set off to find Aboriginal elder Longcoat Bob, who Molly believes has cursed their family. Rees’s outstanding characterizations bring out Aubrey’s venom, Greta’s insouciance, and Yukio’s contemplative soul. Rees fully inhabits Molly, communicating her irrepressible joy and forgiving spirit in the face of unbearable tragedy. This magical and wholly engaging audiobook should not be missed. S.A.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine