Shimmer by Basia Bonkowski

This biography I just could not put down. The author is a Sydney-based writer working in television. Her day by day account of her mother's decline (after a stroke and pneumonia) is told in simple, thoughtful, elegant prose in the present tense, with journeys into her Polish past, and of course, the path we all take when parents die. Other issues she touches upon are Aboriginal dispossession and Aboriginal culture versus European culture. The harrowing emotions experienced during her mother's final two weeks are beautifully expressed - "no one exists outside our fracturing family bubble", as the three siblings make the journey. It is a eulogy for her mother, "Shimmer" represents the chandeliers her mother loved so much. A wise book by a master wordsmith . . . A most satisfying read. Her previous book is also based on personal experience - "Jesse's world: a story of adoption and the global family".

- Sylvania Library

Shimmer by Basia Bonkowski