Act of Grace

In this brilliant novel of fear and sacrifice, trauma and survival, four characters' lives intertwine across time and place.

Australian soldier Toohey returns from Baghdad in 2003 with shrapnel in his neck, crippled by PTSD and white-knuckling life. A decade earlier, aspiring pianist Nasim falls from favour with Saddam Hussein and his psychopathic son Uday, triggering a perilous search for safety. In Melbourne as the millennium turns, Robbie, faced with her father's dementia and family silences that may never be addressed, begins to test boundaries. And in the present day, Gerry seeks to escape his father Toohey's tyranny and heal the wounds inflicted by it.

Crossing the frontiers of war, protest and cultural reconciliation, Act of Grace is a meditation on inheritance: the damage that one generation bestows upon the next, and the potential for transformation. It is a searing, powerful and utterly original work by an exceptional Australian writer.

In acest roman stralucit de frica si sacrificiu, traume si supravietuire, vietile a patru personaje se impletesc in timp si in loc. Soldatul australian Toohey se intoarce din Bagdad in 2003 cu srapnel in gat, schilodit de PTSD si viata alba. Cu un deceniu mai devreme, aspirantul pianist Nasim cade din favoarea lui Saddam Hussein si a fiului sau psihopat Uday, declansand o periculoasa cautare a sigurantei.