Name: Eva Bailey's review of All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton
Item: All Our Shimmering Skies
Rating: 4
Author: Eva Bailey

Trent Dalton

The new novel from the bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton

All Our Shimmering Skies

Lewis John Fisher

The bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton, returns with All Our Shimmering Skies - a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain overhead, motherless Molly Hook, the gravedigger's daughter, turns once again to the sky for guidance. She carries a stone heart inside a duffel bag next to the map that leads to Longcoat Bob, the deep country sorcerer who put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. 'Run, Molly, run,' says the daytime sky. Run to the vine forests. Run to northern Australia's wild and magical monsoon lands. Run to friendship. Run to love. Run. Because the graverobber's coming, Molly, and the night-time sky is coming with him. So run, Molly, run. All Our Shimmering Skies is a story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth and the secrets we bury inside ourselves. It is an odyssey of true love and grave danger; of darkness and light; of bones and blue skies. A buoyant, beautiful and magical novel abrim with warmth, wit and wonder, a love letter to Australia and the art of looking up.

Eva Bailey

4.5 stars, I bloody loved this. Haven't been so emotionally attached to characters in a while and the descriptions of the outback were magical.

The international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton returns with a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. 'A glinting, big-hearted miracle of a book' Richard Glover 'A work of shimmering originality and energy, with extraordinary characters and a clever, thrilling plot ... unputdownable' Sydney Morning Herald Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain down, motherless Molly Hook, the gravedigger's daughter, is looking to the skies and running for her life. Inside a duffel bag she carries a stone heart, alongside a map to lead her to Longcoat Bob, the deep-country sorcerer who she believes put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress, and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. The treasure lies before them, but close behind them trails the dark. And above them, always, are the shimmering skies. A story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth and the secrets we bury inside ourselves, All Our Shimmering Skies is an odyssey of true love and grave danger, of darkness and light, of bones and blue skies. It is a love letter to Australia and an ode to the art of looking up – a buoyant, beautiful and magical novel, abrim with warmth, wit and wonder. 'Dalton is an author of 19th-century expansiveness, one with a sense that intelligence, talent for characterisation and sheer narrative brio can still be the whole cloth of the writer's ambition ... it is storytelling manna, fallen straight from the Territorian skies.' The Australian 'As Australian as outback red dirt and as universal as the sky young Molly Hook's journey takes place beneath, All Our Shimmering Skies is an open-hearted wonder, by turns heartbreaking and full of hope, no less than an instant classic' Venero Armanno 'Australia has a new literary hero. Molly Hook – part Cordelia, part Jo March, part Pippi Longstocking – pulls us into a story and a landscape that is mythic, beguiling and almost hallucinatory in its beauty. And instantly recognisable as our own' Kristina Olsson 'This is storytelling at its absolute purest, a truly courageous expression of longing, hope and love … against unimaginable odds' Asher Keddie 'All Our Shimmering Skies is the follow-up to Boy Swallows Universe we could have never imagined, but the one Dalton was destined to gift us. It's a story of heroes and villains, foxes and water buffalo, fighter planes and birds of prey, real magic and real love, epitaphs and aphorisms, lost treasure and lost life. It's a love letter to the nation. It's your favourite childhood adventure story dictated by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and William Shakespeare, with a score by Franz Liszt. It's dead serious. It's completely ridiculous. It's all of these things and more' Booktopia

Esme Chiverton 

Fantastic book, I actually preferred it to 'Boy Swallows Universe' as I really enjoyed the more fantastical elements, it felt lighter too and the historical aspect was also great. The descriptions of the natural landscape, flora and fauna made me want to visit the Northern Territory!

Natalie Manuel

Finishing this book is like waking up from a fever dream that told you everything you ever wanted to know but can only remember as a feeling, not a thought.

I don’t really know how Trent Dalton does it, but somehow he manages to include the most horrific of events, the most horrible things humans are capable of, while still holding out a hand towards humanity like we deserved to be saved.

I think this book will take a while to sink in, because essentially it is a Wizard of Oz style mystical odyssey and so there are layers of meaning that kind of dance on the periphery of my understanding. I get it, where I’m meant to, but I’m sure I will get even more. Those are the best books.

Some people will struggle with the darkness that is included and alluded to in the novel, others will struggle with the magical realism. It is 100% not the book for everyone. 

It was the book for me though, so 5 stars.

Laura Mitchell Hutchinson

Dig, Molly, dig. Dig for your courage. Did for your strength. Dig for your truth.


Don't be fooled by the joyful, colourful cover, or the fact that this book is about a young pre-teen girl. This story was HEAVY and gory in parts. 

However, AMAZING. It took me a while to get into Dalton's prose, which was quirky and I tripped over it whenever a new scene was being set. But don't let that stop you! All Our Shimmering Skies was a beautiful, totally unpredictable and deep, thought-provoking story. I honestly gasped out loud in some parts, and my heart was racing. The vivid scenery of the Northern Territory was brought to life in my mind and I can't wait to visit there one day. AOSS made this little patriotic feminist very proud. Highly recommend.

I am aiming to read 21 genres in 2021. This one ticks the boxes #historicalfiction #australian

Lewis John Fisher &
All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

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Lewis John Fisher &All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

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Lewis John Fisher &
All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton