The Colour of the Night

 The Colour of the Night

Reviewed By  Grasshopper2       October 15, 2014

 

Author  Robert Hollingworth

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 978-1-925000-56-6
Publisher:         Hybrid Publishers
Release Date:    

   Website:   http://www.hybridpublishers.com.au

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 This is a story of despairing characters with devastating backgrounds living in close proximity in an inner Melbourne suburb. Nick the Greek landlord pops in and out of the story and has a dream to dig out a cellar underneath his building. His optimism is welcome.

Two of his tenants are an unlikely pair; an aristocratic Englishman whose main occupation is watching small boys on a security camera or on computer and an Afghan refugee, who fled his home when he witnessed his father shot by the Taliban.

Next door Lives Elton Taking a year off from Uni. He spends his life in his darkened bedroom with his computers as companions while his mother is also a companion for lonely men.

Steff and Simon live next to them. They are artists, devoted to their work but jaded and bored. Unfortunately their devotion doesn’t carry over to their children and parenting has always been a mystery to them.

Jess, a self-harming emo and her brother James a graffiti artist live in a confused and frightening world. James lives in a small cottage at the back of the house, and at night cycles silently out to leave his signature on various walls.

As the story unfolds you are left wondering how something can be salvaged from the lives of these people and what would it take. But salvation is at hand. A young survivor of a devastating bush fire which killed his parents comes to stay in Frederick Street and immediately begins to have an impact on everyone’s life.

His view of life is so simple and so healing that after rejecting him, people searching for meaning and messages begin to listen to him. His background has been a simple loving one and he is unaware of the terrors and fears of not being wanted and listened to.

This story is told sympathetically and respectfully. It brings into focus issues of which we all are familiar. The solution too many problems may be with the most unexpected person or place. In that regard the message is “Never give up” no matter how bad things seem.

Fiction