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Before you knew my name / Jacqueline Bublitz.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Crows Nest, New South Wales : Allen & Unwin, 2021Description: 328 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 1760878855
  • 9781760878856
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: There is no name to be spoken, but I am recognised by each of the women present, clasped around their lifted hands, heavy on their hearts. I am their fears, and their lucky escapes, their anger, and their wariness. I am their caution and their yesterdays, the shadow version of themselves all those nights they have spent looking over shoulders, or twining keys between fingers ... So when the man's passion is spent, it is the quiet rage of women that lingers, can be seen, glittering, from above. Long after all the little fires have been extinguished, and the mourners have moved on. Dead girls don't usually get to tell their story, but Alice Lee has always been a different type of girl. When she arrives in New York on her eighteenth birthday, carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen Leica in her bag, Alice is a plucky teenager looking to start a new life away from her dark past. Now she's 'Jane Doe', 'Riverside Jane', an unidentified body on a slab at City Morgue. Newspaper headlines briefly report that 'the body was discovered by a jogger'. Ruby Jones is a lonely Australian woman trying to put distance between herself and a destructive relationship back home, and is struggling in the aftermath of being the person to find Alice's body. When she encounters Death Club, a small group of misfits who meet at bars around the city to discuss death and dying, she finds a safe space to explore her increasing obsession with the girl and her unidentified killer. Alice, seemingly stuck between life and death, narrates Ruby's story, hoping that this woman will help her come to terms with what happened and help identify her body. From this first, devastating encounter, an enduring connection between the two women is formed. One that will eventually lead to the man who murdered Alice ...
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection BUBL Available T00837562
Fiction Gonville Library Fiction Collection Fiction Collection BUBL Available T00837560
Total holds: 1

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An extraordinary, unputdownable debut novel exploring trauma, connection, and our cultural obsession with dead girls.

There is no name to be spoken, but I am recognised by each of the women present, clasped around their lifted hands, heavy on their hearts. I am their fears, and their lucky escapes, their anger, and their wariness. I am their caution and their yesterdays, the shadow version of themselves all those nights they have spent looking over shoulders, or twining keys between fingers ... So when the man's passion is spent, it is the quiet rage of women that lingers, can be seen, glittering, from above. Long after all the little fires have been extinguished, and the mourners have moved on. Dead girls don't usually get to tell their story, but Alice Lee has always been a different type of girl. When she arrives in New York on her eighteenth birthday, carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen Leica in her bag, Alice is a plucky teenager looking to start a new life away from her dark past. Now she's 'Jane Doe', 'Riverside Jane', an unidentified body on a slab at City Morgue. Newspaper headlines briefly report that 'the body was discovered by a jogger'. Ruby Jones is a lonely Australian woman trying to put distance between herself and a destructive relationship back home, and is struggling in the aftermath of being the person to find Alice's body. When she encounters Death Club, a small group of misfits who meet at bars around the city to discuss death and dying, she finds a safe space to explore her increasing obsession with the girl and her unidentified killer. Alice, seemingly stuck between life and death, narrates Ruby's story, hoping that this woman will help her come to terms with what happened and help identify her body. From this first, devastating encounter, an enduring connection between the two women is formed. One that will eventually lead to the man who murdered Alice ...

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Bublitz's haunting debut follows Ruby Jones and Alice Lee, both escaping complicated entanglements with men and arriving in New York City on the same day. Ruby and Alice couldn't be more different. Ruby has an inheritance that will support her while she is in New York, while Alice has $600 and a stolen camera. They never meet each other in life, but they forge a remarkable bond in death. One month after arriving in the city, Ruby finds Alice's body on the banks of the Hudson River. She carries no identification and is categorized as a Jane Doe. Guided by Alice, who reaches out from the other side of death, Ruby is determined to find out who Alice was. The resulting story focuses not so much on the killer, but on allowing each woman to share her own experience. Penelope Rawlins narrates the story beautifully, seamlessly shifting between numerous voices and accents and presenting nuanced and striking characterizations. VERDICT This sensitively narrated story, which examines universal questions about death and what comes after, is not to be missed.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

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