Didn't really know what this was about prior to reading but ended up loving the story! The prose is beautiful

Grief from the perspective of a young child is what I felt was the overriding theme in this story, and you cannot help but want to hug Olga and wish her comfort and strength, and most of all joy.It's an interesting read and I believe most people can relate to it, if they have suffered the loss of a loved one at some point in life.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

This was a poignant story about an adolescent girl who idolizes her father when he suddenly dies and rather than allow her to be a part of the grieving process she is sent out as though it is a normal day. This book tried to tackle this very personal and difficult issue of how any child would or should cope with losing the most important person (adult) in their young lives. Overall, I felt like the author did a good job with this although I think it is difficult to capture a child’s perspective, in that moment, once you are no longer the child. But the validity of the narrative still feels true and well written.
#DrivingIntotheSun #NetGalley

I found this book to be overly suspenseful for a book about a chicken farm. It wasn't clear to me what work was being undertaken there and I ceased caring enough to persue this until the end.

This is a well-written novel with a poetic-prose style. The story is based on the harsh reality of a widowed woman (Henry) mother of the 11-year old main character (Orla) and Debee, who faces a no-man's-land. Orla's father was a great bright light in his world. When she dies suddenly, Orla has to live without his warm and powerful presence at the peak of her adolescence. It is a story full of respect for children and the cheerfulness of their inner worlds. Explore the feelings of grief, loneliness, tenderness, innocence, and betrayal. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

“Cora always bought Robur tea. Orla loved its indigo wrapper, the squeak of its leaves when she squeezed the packet, its scent. New boxes of tea, she thought, smelled like earth, sounded like a forest full of birds.”

Driving Into The Sun is the second novel by Singapore-born prize-winning Australian poet and author, Marcella Polain. It’s 1968, Perth, Western Australia, and young Orla Blest’s life is pretty good. It would be better if they were still living in the hills, where her school friends are; better still if she had a horse. But she’s here, in a suburb near the beach, with Henrietta (Mum) and Dan (Dad) and her little sister, Deebee, just for a year, until their house is built. And Dad takes her to riding lessons every second Saturday: being with Dad, just her, and riding Nugget, her two favourite things in life. But then, one Monday morning, Dad doesn’t come home.

Daddy is gone. And, yes, there was a funeral (Orla and Deebee weren’t allowed to go, were taken to the zoo instead), but despite that, despite what everyone says, despite what Deebee believes, Orla, deep down, still hopes, still expects every day that, when she puts the key in the door after school, he will be there in the kitchen, listening to his transistor radio, waiting for her, if only she behaves well, if only she’s a good girl.

Polain’s main narrator is an adolescent girl whose voice is made authentic by the joys, worries, dreads and doubts that fill her thoughts, as well as the sentence structure of her inner monologue: fragments, stops, and repetition all give it a convincing realism. Dan’s thoughts as he collapses and dies provide some history that Orla cannot know, and occasional pieces from the perspective of Henry and Deebee complete the story.

Polain’s plot is easily believable; her characters, their fears and flaws and foibles, will all resonate with readers of a certain vintage; and the setting is expertly conveyed by her evocative descriptive prose. “In the late afternoons, the tree trunks flushed pink, orange. Dusk gathered them up, a handful of slender bruises: mauve, indigo, charcoal. Then swallowed them.” There is certainly drama, but this is no page-turner: rather, it’s a slow burn story that draws the reader in to the final shocking conclusion. An outstanding read.
This unbiased review is from a copy provided by NetGalley and Fremantle Press.

The author brilliantly captured the struggle of an adolescent girl that has lost the person at the center of her life. Struggling not only with the death of her father, but of the new reality of being treated differently since she is no longer part of a nuclear family, Orla is forced to grow up quickly. The stellar writing by the author made this a journey I thoroughly enjoyed.

'They go to work and they don’t come back. Everywhere there are cracks in the world that other people can’t see.'

The story takes place in Perth, Australia 1968 and one day Orla’s father Dan, a shining sun in her world, doesn’t come home. With his death, everything changes for Orla, her little sister Deebee and their mother Henrietta. The world becomes a threatening place without the protection of a father, there is nothing left to save them, financial hardship is that much heavier a weight, and as their father’s thoughts fade, the last are those of shame as the reader is privy to his regrets, that he left his wife nothing, that he is so sorry… The novel flows between memories and the aftermath of the shift in their family structure. Before, there are problems, they aren’t able to stay in their house in the hills, the money isn’t coming in. Her parents must leave the hills for a cheaper living situation, they move to the ‘only-for-a-year-house’, but another house will be built. No longer surrounded by the vast wilderness, closer to the beach but in a more suburban setting they are closer to neighbors. People that are better left unknown, those you avoid. Their mother works weekends to help them stay afloat, until the death of their father makes the neighbors people to rely upon, when there is no one else. There are to be no more riding lessons for Orla, who has a head full of horses, which the family couldn’t really afford while her daddy was alive, but how could he deny his girl such a desperate desire? Left with their mother, who has always been far less patient with the children, missing the father who ‘never shouted’ they are all vulnerable to the threats ‘out there’ in the big bad world. There is never true closure for Orla and Deebee, without the finality of a funeral (as the girls weren’t allowed to go) Orla is sure her daddy will return, like a moth to a light, despite the visit from the reverend assuring her ‘God only takes the best first.’

Orla isn’t quite a teenager yet, still a little girl awakening to grown up things, and of course far less sheltered after she loses her father. The author did a wonderful job of getting into a young girls mind, everything is murky when you’re young. It’s like trying to understand words while swimming underwater. Nothing is fully explained, nor fully grasped when you are not quite developed in body and mind. But you sure grow up fast when your home is no longer made up of capable, loving parents. Henrietta, due to this tragic unexpected circumstance is now both mother and father, frustrated by Orla whom she doesn’t understand, a little girl she has always felt lacked ‘guts’, something all Australians need, but she will have to learn, she will have to learn to be harder in this place. What is she going to do, left with no one but the children, and how is she, a widow alone in the 1960’s, to keep them fed, housed, clothed? Then there is a prowler lurking about, and women just aren’t taken seriously, they need a husband for everything, how is she to secure a better home for her girls when women need men to be approved for such things? A woman alone with little girls is a target! The odds are always stacked against her. Dan left them nothing! He didn’t prepare for such things and she is paying for it all, she and her girls. Another betrayal she has to stomach, and there were other betrayals. She hates the thought of it all, trapped, a mountain on her shoulders. Would it have been better if she died? After all, people rally behind men who lose wives, forgive them anything, not so for a widow! It’s probably her fault he is dead! These thoughts are absolutely genuine of the times, it was the same with single mothers even when I grew up in America during the late seventies and early eighties, there was a ‘they probably deserve it’ mentality. There wasn’t empathy for single mom’s whether due to the loss of a husband or divorce. Being in Henrietta’s shoes would be terrifying and there are pages dedicated to her head space, though Orla dominates the novel.

With their father gone, a young mother named Cora comes into their lives too, not as coarse as they once believed but talking about adult things Orla doesn’t always comprehend, with so much life in her, confidence, a fun person. Her mother has different views on ‘unfortunate’ Cora, jealous too of the amount of time her eldest daughter chooses to spend at her house but Orla thinks she is lucky, with both her mother and father still alive. Little sister, wild Deebee feels caged when she has to stay with the Thompsons while her mother is at work, absolutely hates it. I adored Deebee, she is feral, she isn’t a ‘good girl’ but that doesn’t make her bad. She is a fierce little thing, even less aware of what goes on around them all.

Through the novel there is a threat simmering, but threats always simmer for women living on their own. The ending really hit me between the eyes. The novel may lose some readers because often people get lost in internal dialogue, particularly when it’s the worries of an often anxious young girl. I think it actually works for Orla’s character, because with the difficulties and grief she feels, the longing, the fear of the future, her mind wouldn’t ever be at rest, her thoughts wouldn’t be linear. That’s how we are when we’re trying to make sense of our place in the world. A sad novel.

Out Today February 1, 2019

Fremantle Press

I struggled getting into this novel- however it is worth sticking with the narrator Orla, on the cusp of adolesence, whose life is transformed dramatically when her father suddenly dies.
Set in Australia in 1968 things change so much for Orla and her younger sister Deebee and they have to face many new and often threatening grown up situations. Her mother Henrietta is strict and is trying to deal with the practicalities of widowhood as well as bringing up the girls, who she often finds demanding. "Orla loved the idea of good, so she had done what she was told..." and she was quite a daddy's girl, sensitive and often getting what she wants. Suddenly she has to grow up when her mother takes on a full time job, care for her sister and have to deal with everyone around her in the neighbourhood, school alongside her longing for the father to return. The realisation about cruelty in people and in life often shatter Orla's preconceptions of the somewhat idyllic world she had before her father died (although for their mother is was not altogether that easy)
There are some wonderful characters like Kit, her mother's friend, Cora the next door neighbour who offers a mother role Orla and her sister long for and from his grave the voice of her father reflecting the grief being felt by Orla.
As someone who lost my mother when I was young and later became a widow with two sons to bring up I could distinctly see myself in both Orla and her mother. The emptiness of loss and the lack of physical comfort is always prominent and for Orla it often leads her into what could be dangerous situations. She has to learn very fast about being an adult.
The scenes at school with the reaction to her father's death and the rare but special moments when their mother penetrates their grief to provide warmth and love are poignant and intimate. Will Orla be strong enough to survive or will the ghosts and her fears overcome her dreams and world?
Hadn't heard of the author but she obviously has a keen eye on the personal and familial world when tragedy happens.

Driving Into The Sun- a very touching, poetic journey with Orla and profound grief before and after. Engaging with a heart felt rythme thru out the book..
Thanks NetHalley for ARC.

3.5 stars-- Within this novel, Polain explores the impact of a father's death on his family, particularly on his pre-teen daughter, Orla. I found Polain's poignant depiction of grief to be realistic and thorough, and Polain does a wonderful job allowing the reader to experience Orla's emotions with her. There are also several suspenseful moments within the book that are well-written page-turners in which I too felt the fear of the situation. At times, Polain's experimentation with language results in a scene feeling unclear and vague, which is why I brought my rating down to 3.5 stars instead of 4; overall, however, Polain's prose is poetic and beautiful. Thank you to NetGalley and Fremantle Press for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.