June 22 - 28, 2022
Beechworth author nominated for literary awards
By Bailey Zimmermann
NOVELIST Robert Barclay has been nominated for both the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for his book The Diary of Katy Yehonala. Mr Barclay, who “writes better than he lives” spent much of his adult life in and around Asia, before moving back to Australia and realising his desire to tell important stories he felt should be heard, sharing themes that had universal interest. The book is the first of a four part literature series ‘The Butterfly Dynasty’ which explores themes including child sex trafficking, the collision of modern with ancient China and women’s ascendance. The Diary of Katy Yehonala introduces Katy Yehonala, descendant of the Dowager Empress Cixi, and born into the violence of the Chinese Revolution and its aftermath. The story follows her development as a young woman learning about love and life in England, then later in Australia with her husband. The romantic keys of a piano accompany her narrative from her increasingly-famous daughter, Clara, a youthful piano virtuoso known universally as the Jade Princess. The sequel, and second in the series of four, describes how Katy follows her murdered husband’s steps to Cambodia where his charity operated, taking daughter Clara, to discover answers to questions she had read in his unfinished manuscript.
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