''After Darkness'' (2014) is a novel by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n author Christine Piper. It won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 2014 and was shortlisted for the

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

in 2015.

Plot summary

The novel follows the story, told in three intertwined narrative strands, of Tomakazu Ibaraki, a Japanese doctor living in Australia around the time of World War II. The first strand deals with Ibaraki's arrival in a detainment camp in South Australia in 1942 after the outbreak of war; the second with Ibaraki's arrival in Broome in 1938 to work in a hospital there; and the third concerns his marriage in Tokyo in 1934.

Reviews

* David Messer in ''Sydney Morning Herald'' noted the novel "addresses timeless themes such as friendship, personal conscience and others less welcome – racism, nationalism and the way a commitment to bureaucracy can lead to the worst excesses and injustices." * Linda Funnell in ''The Newtown Review of Books'' stated: "This is a thoughtful and beautifully put together novel; it is not easy in parts, but its trajectory is ultimately one of hope, and in its humanity glows like the lanterns launched onto Broome's Roebuck Bay". * Joanne Peulen of ''Booklover Book Reviews'' stated: "There is an understated and refined, almost ageless quality, to Piper’s prose. Any musician understands it is the quieter passages of a concerto that draw in the listener and heighten their emotional engagement with a piece. Piper has translated this knowledge to the pages of ''After Darkness''."Book Review - After Darkness by Christine Piper" by Joanne Peulen, ''Booklover Book Reviews'', 18 June 2014
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Awards and nominations

* 2014 winner The Australian/Vogel Literary Award * 2015 shortlisted Indie Awards — Debut Fiction * 2015 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award * 2015 shortlisted Nita Kibble Literary Award — Dobbie Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:After Darkness 2014 Australian novels Novels set in South Australia Novels set in Western Australia Novels set in Japan Japan in non-Japanese culture Allen & Unwin books