Cape Grimm Audiobook By Carmel Bird cover art

Cape Grimm

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Cape Grimm

By: Carmel Bird
Narrated by: Humphrey Bower, Nicki Paull
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On the far northwest coast of Tasmania at Cape Grimm lies the isolated and idiosyncratic community of Skye, which practises a religion that reveres the imagination. One clear evening in 1992 all the inhabitants enter the church hall, where they are locked in and burned alive. They have been persuaded to do this by a young man called Caleb Mean - also known as El Nino, the Christ Child. The only survivors of the fire are Caleb, his lover Virginia, and their baby daughter Golden. How could such a thing happen? Do the answers lie in the history of Skye itself, founded by the unlikely survivors of a 19th century shipwreck? Or do the only real clues lie in the dark truths of fairytales?

©2004 Carmel Bird (P)2004 Bolinda Publishing Fiction Fantasy Multigenerational Family Oceania Growing Up Literature & Fiction Classics Family Life Geography & Cultures Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Explore the World Social & Life Skills Growing Up & Facts of Life

Editorial reviews

An inexplicable tragedy lies at the center of Carmel Bird's hypnotic and intriguing Cape Grimm: the burning of nearly all of the town's inhabitants inside of a church by Caleb Mean, or as he is also known, the "Christ Child".

Humphrey Bower and Nicki Paul display a chameleon-like ability in capturing the subtle accents, inflections, and emotions of the mosaic of colorful personalities that make up Cape Grimm, and their powerful, authoritative performances add resonance to Bird's examination of how a small town's complex history can inform a seemingly senseless act of violence.
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The summary of this book would lead you to expect a typical overdramatic story about a fringe cult driven to mass suicide. Instead, it's a haunting reminiscence by the people who have survived the event and who are now trying to fit the story of what happened at Skye into the narrative of their own lives. The book won't satisfy people who want a story that confirms how weird cults are, and it won't satisfy people who want a fast-paced action/rescue narrative. It will be deeply satisfying to listeners who think about what happens after a tragic event to those who were directly and indirectly touched by it. It's a story that celebrates the power of the imagination while recognizing that it can have dark consequences.

This is also a book for someone who wants to feel immersed in the landscape of the story - Carmel Bird's beautiful prose and the astonishing synchronicity of the two narrators really bring the listener deep into the world of Skye.

Dreamlike and compelling

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This writer spends too much time talking about telling the story instead of just telling it. Also, strange glossary at the end which doesn't contribute to the story very well, although some of the fairy tales are interesting. This glossary may work well when actually reading the book, but doesn't work well when listening. Ending is anticlimatic and cliche.

Too self-referential

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