Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Anna Krien, Black Inc., $32.99.
Reading this is like walking on a tightrope. It straddles continents and cultures, dives back and forth in time and occupies unstable standpoints. It has been shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and long-listed for the 2019 Indie Book Awards.
Here’s a stirring narrative of dread and sacrifice, and what people will do to outrun shadows. According to Anna, the inspiration that spurred the novel onward was a deep research dive into Australia’s role in the Iraq War. It’s a multi-generational novel where timing and technology is correctly aligned. Even the continuity is right. “It has considerable impressive range, moral intricacy, a multi-faceted vantage point and historical assembling.”
The Act of Grace follows the lives of four characters: Toohey, an Australian soldier returned from Afghanistan and Iraq; Gerry, his son; Nasim, an aspiring Iraqi pianist; and Robbie, Melbourne-born and bred, whose father develops dementia at a young age. Their worlds are interwoven into a talented narrative of remorse and estimation, distressing experiences and continuance. It crosses the frontiers of war, protest and reconciliation.
The book’s title has a significant meaning. Act of Grace refers to real-life discretionary payments made to Iraqi civilians harmed by Australian military action. As Krien says: the “term struck me largely for its Orwellian nature – is it possible to have an act of grace in an invasion that was so clearly based on lies and political swagger? In its way, my novel explores this as well as other acts of grace – brief connections and opportunities for transformation between strangers, as well as those cruel, needless acts that can irreparably affect one’s life”.
There’s not only a vital force to the characters, but also a recognition that trauma does exist and it can be passed on down through the generations. For a ‘lucky few, the burden of history may well pose a way out and provide the potential for transformation’.
