The Golden Age

Local Description

A shining gem of a novel. Set largely around a polio hospital in the early 1950s, the lives, loves and losses of the people who intersect there are beautifully drawn. ->SARAH

Description

It is 1954 and thirteen-year-old Frank Gold, refugee from wartime Hungary, is learning to walk again after contracting polio in Australia. At the Golden Age Children's Polio Convalescent Home in Perth, he sees Elsa, a fellow patient, and they form a forbidden, passionate bond. The Golden Age becomes the little world that reflects the larger one, where everything occurs- love and desire, music, death, and poetry. It is a place where children must learn they're alone, even within their families. Subtle, moving and remarkably lovely, The Golden Age evokes a time past and a yearning for deep connection, from one of Australia's finest and most-loved novelists.

Awards

Shortlisted for Stella Prize 2015.