Lit in Translation

The Golden Age

The Golden Age

Joan London (born 1948)

English editions

Written in English

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Frank Gold's family escaped Hungary and the war for the safety of Australia, but soon after they land the thirteen-year-old falls ill with polio. In 1954 he is at the Golden Age, a children's convalescent home in Perth, relearning how to walk, and there he meets Elsa. Their intense and forbidden attachment drives the recovery of both and shocks the strait-laced staff. Their parents are changing too. Elsa's mother, Margaret, who devoted herself entirely to motherhood, has to accept that her daughter is ill. Frank's mother, Ida, a celebrated concert pianist back in Hungary, will not accept Western Australia as home, while his father, Meyer, gradually lets go of what they left behind and begins to belong.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Novel
Genres
Migration, Love, Coming of age (assigned by AI)
Set in
Australia, 1950s
First published
2014
Author's age
66 when first published
ISBN

9781609453329 (Europa Editions, United States)

9780143790266 (Penguin, Australia)

More
Wikidata