The great appeal of Dalton’s writing is his tendency ... to write in flowers and flourishes and to bring characters whose lives might otherwise be small to life in vivid, extraordinary (sometimes unbelievable) detail.
In 1942, as Japanese bombs rain down on Darwin, 12-year-old Molly Hook embarks on a perilous journey into the Northern Territory’s untamed wilderness. She carries the weight of a family curse, a heart full of questions, and a shovel that once belonged to her gravedigger father. Guided by the cryptic words of her dead mother, Molly sets off in search of a mysterious man she believes can lift the darkness from her life. Along the way, she is joined by the sharp-tongued actress Greta and a Japanese fighter pilot on the run, both carrying secrets of their own. What follows is an odyssey through the red dust and endless skies of Australia—a story of destiny, brutality, and the magic that lingers in the land itself.
All Our Shimmering Skies immerses you in wartime Australia — the rattling of tin roofs in a tropical storm, the sticky heat pressing against your skin, the sense of isolation in a vast country where survival is never guaranteed. It is a love letter to the landscape, the skies painted with hues of gold and violet, the earth rich with stories both mythical and historical.
Told through the eyes of Molly, the novel walks the tightrope between innocence and experience. Her perspective is at once heart-wrenching and uplifting, her hope undiminished even in the face of cruelty and hardship. Through her, Dalton explores the resilience of the human spirit, the coexistence of beauty and brutality, and the way history shapes the people we become.
The great appeal of Dalton’s writing is his tendency ... to write in flowers and flourishes and to bring characters whose lives might otherwise be small to life in vivid, extraordinary (sometimes unbelievable) detail.
