Last Day in the Dynamite Factory (43 page)

I am particularly grateful to
Michael Leunig
for allowing me to use his beautiful poem as an introduction to this book.

Special thanks go to a very special person: the matchless and marvellous
Annie Grossman
of Annie's Books at Peregian Beach.

To each and every reader, friend and acquaintance who enquired about progress and encouraged me on my journey, thank you.

Finally, to my unseen friends and helpers, eternal gratitude for your ongoing inspiration for my work; for supporting me from beginning to end, and from end to beginning.

In 2011,
The Beloved
won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for an Emerging Queensland Author. In 2013, it was commended for the FAW Christina Stead Award, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and won the Nita B Kibble Award.

Annah and her husband live on Queensland's Sunshine Coast and spend extended time in beautiful Tasmania.

Last Day in the Dynamite Factory
is Annah's second novel.

It's Got Maribyrnong Written All Over It
by David Wixted

Our War Effort – Life in Melbourne's Western Suburbs, 1939–1945

Go West Young Woman! Munitions Diary 1985: Women and Work in Melbourne's Western Suburbs
compiled by Jenny Mitchell and Rod Faulkner, Melbourne's Living Museum of the West, Melbourne, 1985, 2003

History of Munitions Explosives Factory Maribyrnong, 1910–1946

Fighting Fit in the Factory
, Occupational Health & Safety Pamphlet

Australian Military Small Arms Ammunition Production 1888–2003
by David A Mayne CP Eng, MIE Aust, FRMIT

Albion Explosives Factory
by G Vines and A Ward, 1988. Updated in 2005 for this project by O Ford and the Friends of the Black Powder Mill

The National Trust of Victoria

Extracts from unattributed personal stories found in the archives of the State Library of Victoria (with apologies to those unable to be identified)

Great effort has been made by the author to acknowledge all the people who contributed to the material in this book. Unfortunately I was unable to trace everyone, for which I apologise. My sincere thanks, nevertheless, for the information you have made available in the public domain.

 

 

About Last Day in the Dynamite Factory

Silence, Chris discovered, is easy. If nobody asks, you never have to tell.

Christopher Bright is a well-respected conservation architect, good neighbour and loyal friend. He has a devoted wife, two talented children and an old Rover. He plays tennis on Saturdays and enjoys a beer with his business partner after work.

Life is orderly, yet an unresolved question has haunted him for as long as he can remember: who is his birth father? Devotion to his adoptive parents has always prevented Chris from inquiring too deeply, but when one of them dies, explosive information from the past triggers a chain of events that rocks his closest relationships.

As light is cast on his father, attention turns to his birth mother. But when Chris goes in search of the person behind her photo, he encounters a conspiracy of silence. Determined to expose the truth, Chris finds the price of knowledge becomes increasingly costly.

Nevertheless, the truth must be told …

Or must it?

 

Also by Annah Faulkner

The Beloved

The Beloved

When Roberta ‘Bertie' Lightfoot is struck down with polio, her world collapses. But Mama doesn't tolerate self-pity, and Bertie is nobody if not her mother's daughter – until she sets her heart on becoming an artist. Through drawing, the gifted and perceptive Bertie gives form and voice to the reality of the people and the world around her. While her father is happy enough to indulge Bertie's driving passion, her mother will not let art get in the way of the future she wishes for her only daughter.

In 1955 the family moves to post-colonial Port Moresby, a sometimes violent frontier town, where Bertie, determined to be the master of her own life canvas, rebels against her mother's strict control. In this tropical landscape, Bertie thrives amid the lush pallette of colours and abundance, secretly learning the techniques of drawing and painting under the tutelage of her mother's arch rival.

But Roberta is not the only one deceiving her family. As secrets come to light, the domestic varnish starts to crack, and jealousy and passion threaten to forever mar the relationship between mother and daughter.

Tender and witty,
The Beloved
is a moving debut novel which paints a vivid portrait of both the beauty and the burden of unconditional love.

 

 

First published 2015 in Picador by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000

Copyright © Annah Lee Faulkner 2015

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au

EPUB format: 9781743538524

Typeset by Midland Typesetters
Cover design: Debra Billson
Cover images: Richard Schultz/Corbis and
Shutterstock.com

The characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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