6 Degrees of Separation: From Long Island to Breath

Welcome to another 6 Degrees of Separation.

Kate from booksaremyfavouriteandbest provides the name of a book.

Link that title to another in any way your brain makes connections.

Repeat until you have created a chain of six books in addition to the one that started it all.

Let us know where you ended up!

This month, the first book is Long Island by Colm Tóibín.

Long Island is the sequel to his earlier novel Brooklyn, which was adapted for film in 2015.

Another novel that was recently adapted for film is the children’s book Runt by Craig Silvey. Although I usually only include books that I have read and would recommend, I’m making an exception because Runt is high on my TBR pile (and I’m resisting seeing the film until I’ve read it).

The movie Runt was directed by John Sheedy, who also directed H is for Happiness. H is for Happiness was released in 2020, just weeks before Australia was sent into lockdown. It was adapted from My Life as an Alphabet by Barry Jonsberg. I was fortunate to meet both John Sheedy and Barry Jonsberg (who are both amazing human beings in addition to their artistic giftings), as well as have a behind-the-scenes look at that film because my daughter had her acting debut with a supporting role in it.

Barry Jonsberg is based in the Northern Territory, as is Raelke Grimmer, whose YA novel White Noise has just been released. Set in Darwin, White Noise follows the story of Emma, who is navigating school, friendship and her first romance. She is also dealing with the loss of her mum and a recent diagnosis of autism. Grimmer’s decision to write an autistic protagonist came about the same time as her own diagnosis, and therefore emerges out of lived experience.

White Noise is published by UWA Publishing, as is The Twelfth Raven by Doris Brett. The Twelfth Raven is Brett’s memoir about caring for her husband as he recovers from a catastrophic stroke.

Another, more recent, memoir that explores a life-threatening illness is Patting the Shark: A Surfer’s Journey: Learning to Live Well with Cancer by Tim Baker.

Tim Baker found surfing to be wonderful therapy during his cancer treatment. The main characters in Breath by Tim Winton also love surfing. Coincidentally, Breath has also been adapted in a cinematic film, which takes us almost full circle to the beginning of this 6 Degrees chain.

This month, I started on Long Island in the US, before quickly travelling to Australia, where I traversed numerous states: Northern Territory, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. Not quite a round trip around the country but still covered a fair few kilometres.

Over to You

Where will six degrees of separation take you?

Next month, the starting title will be Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Intermezzo. Please join in!