Shell

A big, bold and hauntingly beautiful story that captures a defining moment in Australia's history. Everywhere he looked he saw what Utzon saw. The drama of harbour and horizon, and at night, the star-clotted sky. It held the shape of the possible, of a promise made and waiting to be kept ... In 1965 as Danish architect Jørn Utzon's striking vision for the Sydney Opera House transforms the skyline and unleashes a storm of controversy, the shadow of the Vietnam War and a deadly lottery threaten to tear the country apart. Journalist Pearl Keogh, exiled to the women's pages after being photographed at an anti-war protest, is desperate to find her two missing brothers and save them from the draft. Axel Lindquist, a visionary young glass artist from Sweden, is obsessed with creating a unique work that will do justice to Utzon's towering masterpiece. In this big, bold and hauntingly beautiful portrait of art and life, Shell captures a world on the brink of seismic change though the eyes of two unforgettable characters caught in the eye of the storm. And reminds us why taking a side matters. 'A beautifully crafted novel about a fascinating time in our history. There is a luminous precision in every sentence.' Heather Rose, award-winning author of The Museum of Modern Love 'This narrative of war and hope, the old and the new world, makes Shell a novel of energy and enlightenment, and, to boot, a source of delightful reading.' Tom Keneally '... A beguiling, original and beautifully written imagining of Sydney of the sixties. This will be Olsson's international breakout book' Gail Jones