The Adventures of Miles and Isabel

by Tom Gilling

Overview

Selected by The New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year, Tom Gilling's novel opens in a crowded playhouse in 1856 Sydney, Australia, where two spectacular lives are about to start. During her scandalous turn as Hamlet, a heavily pregnant (and unmarried) actress unexpectedly goes into labor onstage, shocking the audience. Indeed, one patrician spectator — who is also with child — is so moved that she too goes into labor. The babies born that night are Miles and Isabel, two dreamers destined to defy convention — and gravity. The Adventures of Miles and Isabel is a delightful novel set in rough-and-tumble, turn-of-the-century Sydney. A best-seller in Australia, it follows the strangely converging lives of these two young daredevils. United by a dream of flight — and true love — the couple attempts to rise above the obstacles of class and physics that stand in their way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802140197
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/06/2003
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

Editorial Reviews

Miles and Isabel, two Australians born on the same night in 1856, lead vastly different lives that nonetheless put them on a collision course in this second novel by Gilling (The Sooterkin). As children, both idolize the country's first balloonist, Tobias Smith, their infatuation sparking a mutual thirst for adventure and flying. Miles grows up the son of an actress, traveling Australia with his mother and later as the assistant of a levitator. When he comes into possession of a journal kept by Smith, his interest in flying becomes an obsession. Isabel, the youngest daughter of a prosperous Sydney banker, refuses to follow the prescribed route her mother has laid out for her: marriage to a suitably wealthy and dull businessman. Instead, craving independence, she rebels by traveling on her own and mingling with the rougher classes at horse races and in prospecting towns. Though the novel revolves around the inevitable meeting and love affair of Miles and Isabel, their picaresque journeys are peopled with quirky characters that lend the story delicious flavor and send it off on entertaining tangents. Wolunsky, the levitator, regales his audiences with fantastically spun tales of grandly tragic attempts at flight. Isabel's uncle, Dr. Galbraith, a bit of a Victorian mad scientist, attains minor notoriety when he assembles a "Genuine English Safety Bicycle." At times, the writing takes on an almost magical sheen, particularly in passages about flying and levitation. The love story that emerges towards the end is slightly contrived, but fits perfectly with the story's lightly comic, pleasantly wistful ethos. Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda revolves around similarly grandiose 19th-century dreams, but Gilling's novel is an altogether airier affair. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Already a best seller in Gilling's native Australia, this follow-up to The Sooterkin is wonderful and magical. It's the story of two headstrong people born under unusual circumstances on the same day in Sydney in 1856. One (Miles) becomes a "vehicle" for a traveling levitator, while the other (Isabel) is accidentally launched into the air owing to the error of a passing drunkard balloonist, whose notebooks Miles inherits after the balloonist's bizarre death. Synchronicities abound. After finally meeting, Miles and Isabel develop a passion for each other-and a dream of flying flares. The balloonist's arcane notebooks, some theater props, an uncle's early bicycle parts-can these things add up to flight, especially flight from Isabel's rich and objecting parents? The answer to that question determines how one interprets the ending. Can such a charming book end in tragedy? Find out for yourself. A great book for all collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/02.]-Robert E. Brown, Minoa Lib., NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal