Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

THE STARS AT OCTOBER BEND

Glenda Millard

The powerful, captivating story of Alice who is reaching out to express herself through her beautiful-broken words, and Manny who is running to escape his past. When they meet they find the tender beginnings of love and healing.

Alice is fifteen, with hair as red as fire and skin as pale as bone. Her thoughts hammer in her brain, trying to get free, but something inside her is broken. Her words come slow and slurred, but when she writes, heartwords fly from her pen. She offers her poems to passers-by. No one ever takes them. Still, words give her imagined wings. She sees herself with words and wings, stepping off into the clear midair… But when she meets the boy with a scar from shoulder to elbow, she is anchored to the earth by want to see him again. And Manny has seen Alice, on the roof of her river-house, looking like a carving on an old-fashioned ship, sailing through the stars. A poem he scooped up is in his pocket and he knows the words by heart. He is sure Alice has written them. A deeply felt story, alight with tenderness, told in distinctive, poetic language. Glenda Millard is a highly respected award-winning author who writes for children of all ages. Her earlier YA novel, A Small Free Kiss in the Dark (A&U), has received high praise and many awards. Sales are approaching 10,000 copies in Australia, with international rights sold to North America, UK, Norway, Taiwan, and China. Books from her popular Kingdom of Silk series have also received individual awards. Her novel, The Novice, was chosen for a White Raven Award in 2006. Glenda has also written many picture books, including The Duck and the Darklings (A&U), illustrated by Stephen Michael King.

Available products
Book Published 2016-02-01 by Allen & Unwin

Comments

Shortlisted, 2017, CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals (winner announced 19 June 2017) Longlisted, 2017 UKLA Book Award – 11-14+ Category Shortlisted, 2016 Queensland Literary Awards – Young Adult Category (winner TBA)

It is incredibly powerful, haunting, spirited, joyous. Like all of Millard’s work, it is a story that makes you feel. Don’t let it pass you by.

There is so much craft in this novel, all of it sewn into the lining so that we don’t stop to admire it or comment. Your heart will be in your mouth, and you will be cheering and hoping and believing that something new and good will come.

‘This book blew me away. It will tear at your heart, pull it back in again and give you renewed hope that despite what life throws at you, life is ultimately good... Theirs is a love story about hurt and hate but ultimately about healing. It is an incredibly powerful book.'

Millard gets the balance exactly right between literary fiction and a darn good story. Recommended for teens and adults!

The Stars at Oktober Bend has already earned a place on my favourite books of 2016. It is lyrical, quiet, beautiful and utterly mesmerizing. I fell in love with Alice and Manny as they slowly come to terms with their pasts and discover where they belong it the world. Move it straight to the top of your must-read list - I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

UK: Old Barn; USA (English): Candlewick ; Polish: Wydawnictwo Dreams

An absolute tour de force! So beautifully written and with an unforgettable narrative "voice" this is definitely one of the outstanding reads of the year so far.

Millard tiers Leonard Cohen’s Anthem with her own lyrical images of birds, feathers and flight, as well as light through cracks. Her sensory prose is filled with sound and colour and creates a sense of hope for the broken. Manny looks between the cracks to recognise Alice: the girl who makes exquisite fly-lures and writes jewelled words in her Book of Flying and who fell into that place between heaven and earth where “the sun is swallowed up between the violet lips of dusk”...

The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard has been selected as a White Raven 2017! Read more...

Beautifully told through the eyes and words of two protagonists, damaged emotionally and physically, I was willing Alice and Manny to find a way to happiness through the small-town bigotry of Oktober Bend. The writing is quirky, poetic and haunting. Surrounded by rising floodwaters, the ending had me on the edge of my seat. I am so glad Old Barn Books are publishing Glenda Millard in the UK.

It is magnificent - one of the most startling things for the age group I've read this year.

It was absolutely luminous; I couldn't stop reading it, and when I finally forced myself to put it down I couldn't stop thinking about it. Alice and Manny are so beautifully drawn, and their stories are so explored with such care: she may write, and he may run - but together they fly.

This is a story about finding yourself ... a book that will become an Australian classic because it will speak to so many people at different ages about being lost, about being broken, about feeling left behind by people. It's so beautifully written. Glenda Millard goes from strength to strength in her writing.

It's like The Little Prince and Tuck Everlasting in that it's so philosophical and touching that adults will fall in love with it too.

Heartrending and, ultimately, hopeful, this tells the extraordinarily powerful tale of unforgettable Alice.

The Stars at Oktober Bend is so beautifully and so carefully written it seems each word is pure gold ... Out of terrible crimes evolves a story of forgiveness and redemption, told with passion, heart and humour; it is unforgettable.

...Glenda Millard always writes eloquently, poetically and tenderly. This time, however, she has surpassed herself. This story is a work of art; it's a song of love, forgiveness and acceptance, and it's beautiful and wistful and achingly tender. There aren't enough words to describe the wonder of this book.