Praying for Sunshine, Waiting for Rain

A New Guinea story

Praying for Sunshine, Waiting for Rain

A New Guinea story

Ellen Starck, a young South Australian from a privileged background, shares the prejudices of her society about native peoples. Her initial experience of the newly ‘discovered’ New Guinea highlands, in which she arrives in 1937 as the wife of a Lutheran missionary, does little to change her mind. She begins by marking time, hoping her husband will soon tire of his missionary work, but she gradually ventures beyond the meagre European society around her into the highland world—especially the world of women and girls, whom she comes to see as New Guinea’s best hope. Providing simple health care in nearby villages gives her a sense of purpose, but then personal tragedy strikes, testing her to her limits. Unexpected new relationships, born in part of the tragedy, help her through her grief and encourage her to stay in the highlands. Eventually the prospect of a new life in America presents itself, but the Pacific War intervenes, bringing further isolation and loss. Her response is a decision to return home, but not to the home she originally left.

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Praise for Praying for Sunshine, Waiting for Rain

Judith Flitcroft, author of Walk Back in Time.

Praying for Sunshine, Waiting for Rain...throws light on a controversial subject...Should missionaries have entered a wild and very different culture, the Highlands of New Guinea, to bring the idea of a Christian God to peoples who were tribal and had thousands of years of their own history?

[The author] beautifully recounts the lives of Ellen and Carl as they set about bringing their Christian God to this country in the 1930’s...This is a very special book...

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German Lessons

German Lessons

Frank Hannaford, a young Australian from a sheltered Catholic background, is searching for a deeper version of himself in 1930s Germany. At the university and in an organisation of young Catholic men he finds friendship and a new confidence in his own resources. A German identity begins to form, surprising and delighting him. But he also struggles with the unexpected possibilities of love, and with political events and commitments he does not fully understand. The Nazis come to power, previously strong opposition from the Catholic Church evaporates, and Frank is left floundering, at odds both with himself and with the young woman whose friendship he most values. A Bildungsroman set in a time of social and political upheaval.

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PRAISE FOR GERMAN LESSONS

Professor Paul james

From 1930s Australia to a nascent Nazi Germany, this novel spans cultures as a world of youthful exuberance disintegrates into burning buildings, broken bodies, clerical submission and swastikas. German Lessons finely renders personal intimacies that provide premonitions for our own unsettled times.

Professor Paul James – Director, Institute for Culture & Society, Institute for Culture and Society

Professor Ian Kerridge

German Lessons charts in intimate detail how both mortality and faith may be challenged and distorted by power. Those unfamiliar with the relevant history must read this book. Those who know it too well should read this book to be reminded how history is created by, and permanently inscribes, the life-worlds of individuals

Professor Ian Kerridge — Sydney Health Ethics, University of Sydney

PRESS FOR GERMAN LESSONS

Interview with the author by Vintage Reds