From Ireland to Australia, an immigrant's tale of love, war, and the unbreakable bonds of family.
Praise for Wild Chicory:
'It is uplifting to know that there are people who can write like this, with clarity, a bit of devilment and a hint of a smile. The story is a simple one, but told in a way that keeps you reading as much for the elegance of the telling as for the action it describes. Here is prose with a light, sunny breeze blowing through it... Why can't more people write like this? A little gem.' - The Age
'colourful, evocative and energetic' - Sydney Morning Herald
'Kim Kelly's Wild Chicory is told with wit, warmth and courage. It's an ode to the splendour to be found in a simple life and the hope for something better, even if you must risk everything to achieve it.' - Newtown Review of Books
Wild Chicory is a novella that takes the reader on an immigrant journey from Ireland to Australia in the early 1900s, along threads of love, family, war and peace. It's a slice of ordinary life rich in history, folklore and fairy tale, and a portrait of the precious relationship between a granddaughter, Brigid, and her grandmother, Nell.
From the windswept, emerald coast of County Kerry, to the slums of Sydney's Surry Hills; and from the bitter sectarian violence of Ulster, to tranquillity of rural New South Wales, Brigid weaves her grandmother's tales into a small but beautiful epic of romance and tragedy, of laughter and the cold reality of loss. It's Nell's tales, tall and true, that spur Brigid to write her own, too.
Ultimately, it's a story of finding your feet in a new land - be that a new country, or a new emotional space - and the wonderful trove of narrative we carry with us wherever we might go.
Kelly, Kim: - "Kim Kelly is the author of seven novels exploring Australia and its history, including the acclaimed Wild Chicory, The Blue Mile, and UK Pigeonhole favourite, Paper Daisies. Her stories shine a bright light on some forgotten corners of the past and tell the tales of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. With warmth and lyrical charm, Kim leads her readers into difficult terrain, exploring themes of bigotry, class conflict, disadvantage and violence in our shared history - issues that resonate through the social and political landscape of Australia and the world today. A widely respected book editor and literary consultant by trade, stories fill her everyday - most nights, too - and it's love that fuels her intellectual engine. Love between lovers, friends, strangers; love of country; love of story. In fact, she takes love so seriously she once donated a kidney to her husband to prove it, and also to save his life. Originally from Sydney, today Kim lives on a small rural property in central New South Wales just outside the tiny gold-rush village of Millthorpe, where the ghosts are mostly friendly and her grown sons regularly come home to graze."
