After Story by Larissa Behrendt
Behrendt merges classic English literature and Aboriginal storytelling through a trip of a lifetime.
This month I finished Larissa Behrendts’ After Story – the perfect remedy when optimism during lockdown begins to wane.
After Story is a gem, you can’t put down, reaching the last chapter, I got literary anxiety akin to binging a rare find on Netflix. Goodbye so soon?
Larissa wonderfully crafts classic English literature and Aboriginal storytelling through a fragile mother and daughter relationship. Behrendt introduces us to Indigenous lawyer Jasmine who invites her mother Della on a literary tour to mend their past.
But even abroad, old wounds are opened when a young child goes missing – a tragedy they know all too well, which is why you’re left rooting for Della and Jasmine to find their way to forgiveness. Jazz’s childhood escapism via books reminded me of the solace it brought me. And when I fell in love with Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland as a girl. The most endearing parts are Aunty Elaine’s stories – the wisdom carried with you no matter where you go.
After Story inspired me to keep speaking with my Elders to capture Our Stories and a yearning to ring mum for that yarn, I didn’t know I needed.
You can purchase After Story from UQP.
Larissa is the author of three novels: Home, which won the 2002 David Unaipon Award and the regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book; Legacy, which won the 2010 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and After Story. She has published numerous books on Indigenous legal issues; her most recent non-fiction book is Finding Eliza: Power and Colonial Storytelling. She was awarded the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year award and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year. Larissa wrote and directed the feature films, After the Apology and Innocence Betrayed and has written and produced several short films. In 2018 she won the Australian Directors’ Guild Award for Best Direction in a Documentary Feature and in 2020 the AACTA for Best Direction in Nonfiction Television. She is the host of Speaking Out on ABC radio and is Distinguished Professor at the Jumbunna Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.
