Bone Ash Sky (Katerina Cosgrove, Hardie Grant)

Katerina Cosgrove co-founded Sappho Books and Gertrude & Alice bookstore/café in Sydney. Her first novel The Glass Heart was published to acclaim in 2001. Bone Ash Sky, her second, is the sweeping, disturbing story of an American journalist who returns to her roots to try to understand three generations of war and genocide, of destruction and regeneration, in Armenia, Beirut and modern-day Lebanon. Anoush’s overriding objective is to uncover the story of the father she never knew and his role in the civil war in 1980s Beirut. While tracking his history she meets long-lost family members, friends and enemies and manages to fall in love with two diametrically opposed men. She delves back into the Armenian genocide, which is harrowingly described, reacts badly to the local food, agonises over her conflicting emotions, adopts an orphaned local girl and creates a good deal of suspicion and antagonism along the way—a typical innocent abroad. Some episodes are melodramatic, however, these are occasional lapses in a novel that is truly powerful, atmospheric, affecting, shocking yet even-handed. Cosgrove does not take sides though others will, I suspect. Readers of Orhan Pamuk, Barbara Kingsolver and Tom Keneally will find this a rewarding read.

Max Oliver is a veteran Australian bookseller

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Category: Reviews