Sheltering in muddy dams, horses burned with matted manes, washing the grit and cinders from a baby’s hair. Alice Bishop’s debut collection of short stories, A Constant Hum, gives voice to these delicate details found in one of Australia’s greatest tragedies, the Black Saturday bushfires.
Having grown up in the region, Bishop draws from her own personal grief as well as that of her community. Her gripping stories pay homage to the people lost and those left behind with sentences crafted as deftly as if they were oil paintings.
Some are as condensed as a few lines, while others swell and grow over pages, yet all manage to bring beauty, poise, depth and light to the darkest of days.
Author: Alice Bishop
Publisher: Text Publishing
A Constant Hum by Alice Bishop (Text Publishing)
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