Sibyl's Cave [Paperback]

Catherine Padmore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2005

Steeped in the landscape and colors of its locations, this deft and graceful novel about memory and discovery follows the orphaned Billie through her childhood in Italy to the United Kingdom during World War II with her adopted family, to art school, and then, finally, to a new life as an adult in Australia. With an evocative eye for personality and place, the narrative alternates between Billie's past, unearthed in her diaries and memories, and her present-day reclusive life on an Australian island, recently interrupted by the unannounced arrival of her niece, Lorelei, and Lorelei's daughter, Elissa, from England. As their lives intertwine, Billie comes to accept and appreciate the importance of family and identity as she faces the memories and secrets that she had hoped to forever leave behind.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This richly detailed tale of one woman's self-discovery is set against an international backdrop in the years surrounding World War II. Heartbreaking at times, it follows Billie from her idyllic childhood on the Mediterranean in Italy through her troubled childhood and young adulthood in England until it finally finds her peacefully settled into a quasi-hermit existence along a river in northern Australia. Through all her experiences, her acutely artistic view of her surroundings informs the story. The landscapes, people, and every last physical detail of Billie's world are rendered with an artist's eye, and Billie finds her only peace in re-creating her world on paper in her many sketchbooks. The almost instinctual way she draws, without thinking, often results in surprising images, even to her, and it is also thus with Padmore's writing. The writing is visually evocative and takes its time with much physical description, with dialogue doing the barest minimum to move the plot. A solid first novel. Debi Lewis
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Catherine Padmore has recently completed a PhD in writing and is fiction writing lecturer at La Trobe University, Melbourne.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1865089524
• ISBN-13: 978-1865089522
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,885,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, beautiful book, October 27, 2005

By 

James Matthew (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sibyl's Cave (Paperback)

In 'Sibyl's Cave', Padmore has created a stunning piece of realist fiction. The author's eye for detail brings her characters and settings to life in a vivid and completely convincing way. This is a totally immersive, rich and delicious reading experience. A beautiful, beautiful book.

5.0 out of 5 stars incredibly absorbing characters, May 17, 2009

By 

Lynne Kelly (Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sibyl's Cave (Paperback)

I couldn't put this book down because I really wanted to know what happened to the characters and understand them better. It is delightful to read a book which draws a whole interwoven web of characters so well. The protagonist, in her various phases, is intriguing, but so are those Padmore has written around her. It was the interplay of characters and their impact on Billie, which made this book so fascinating. It was in no way predictable. More and more depth was revealed, yet internal consistency was never lost.

I highly recommend this book if you want to read a good story, beautifully written, which offers so much more than that because of the exploration of the impact others have on our lives and the way we live them.

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and evocative..., October 27, 2005

By 

livre de chevet - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sibyl's Cave (Paperback)

In realist and non-genre fiction so often a first book is so imbued by the author's personality the narrative is obscured. In Padmore's work she skilfully removes any sign of autobiography and ensures that the reader is given a clear path to the characters - charting that path with remarkably rich and true description. It is her ability to create a lush and textured external landscape for the characters - whether it be the sun-drenched Italian islands, the greyness of England in the 40s or an aromatic and sensual Australian island - that invokes powerfully the characters' internal environment.

Each island that the protagonist Billie lands upon resonates with a part of herself. And it is these changing selves that Padmore explores with a sense of empathy and veracity that makes the book an extraordinary representation of character and place.

An added layer to the truthful tone of the novel is a more fantastic atmosphere imbued with ancient myth. The tales of the Sibyl and Dido overlay the story and resonate in a real and passionate way within the narrative. Padmore's obvious scholarship and erudition does not intrude on the story but rather creates a timeless substance for which the stories of our lives can be seen as tales of wonder.

'Sibyl's Cave' is a refreshing and beautifully written book that gives the reader a strong sense of intimacy with the characters and an authentic involvement with the story, and a sense of the worth of our own stories.