Burning In

She wove through the wintry blue light, entering the maw of Manhattan traffic and held her breath till she reached the Park. Her body was snapped into separate parts. She could feel one leg and not the other, her right hand but not the left. This made walking difficult. Her head throbbed from just figuring out how to take the next step.

She will do whatever she can to find her. Sleep in the park, scour the Ramble, beg every passer-by to keep watch. She will wait it out. As long as it takes.

When her daughter disappears, Martine Hartmann, Australian photographer, packs a bag and goes live in Central Park where Ruby was last seen. Later, in the muzac-filled malls of upstate New York, Martine uncovers what has happened to her daughter. The truth unlocks a secret about her Jewish family's past that takes her back to her childhood home in Australia and then to Germany.

With a set of old photos and an address from the Red Cross, Martine walks the bullet-scarred streets of Berlin. What, or who did her mother leave behind when she fled the city in 1938? As Martine pieces together her mother's final days in the city she is forced to confront her own secrets about Ruby. She plans an exhibition that will be both memorial and visitation.

Structured around tow mysteries, 'Burning In' is a novel about mothers and daughters, and explores the complex obligations we have to the past, the future, and to ourselves. With insight and humour, the 'Burning In' captures the poignant, profound and sometimes absurd ways that we remember what we have lost.

About the author:
Mireille Juchau's first novel, 'Machines for Feeling' was shortlisted for the 1999 Australian/Vogel Literacy Award. In 2002 her play, 'White Gifts', won the Perishable Theatre International Women's Playwriting Competition and was performed and published in the US. Her short fiction, essays and reviews are published internationally and in Australia. Mireille has received grants from the Ian Potter Foundation, the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts, the Australian Council for the Arts and recently won the 2004-05 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship to research her third novel.

Giramondo Publishing
Author: Mireille Juchau
ISBN: 9781920882273
RRP: $27.95