Big Oak on Little Mountain
Shortlisted in the category ‘Novels’, National Book Prize 2022
1939, Europe is in turmoil. When xenophobia and antisemitism reach the tiny community of Sveti Mihael in the Julian March no one is able to stop the catastrophes waiting to happen. After the death of her mother, a fourteen-year-old girl arrives in this village after having been whisked away from her home on a small mountain in Slovenia, by her aunt. Despite the kindness of those around her, she experiences a deep sense of exile and displacement until she flees Sveti Mihael and ends in Ljubljana looking after the child of a professional couple. A series of events force her to leave the family, seeking refuge in her home on the mountain, unaware of the dangers ahead.
Meticulously researched, as all of Drofenik’s previous works, Big Oak on Little Mountain is a gripping and moving novel about exile, war and the consequences of individual choices.
Publisher
Horizons
Year of Publication:
2021
Author: Lou Drofenik (Zammit)
Lou Drofenik (Zammit), a Maltese born Australian novelist whose historical fiction primarily deals with women’s migration to Australia set between European and Australian cultures. She is a three-time winner and a four-time shortlistee of the National Book Prize of Malta. She lives with her husband in Victoria, Taungurung country.
