The old house stands at the end of a dirt path now swallowed by grass. Its once-white walls have turned the colour of weak tea after decades of rain and neglect. The roof tiles have sunk in the middle like the spine of an old man. This is the abandoned house in the village where Catherine Kaixin Yu’s grandmother used to live. When Catherine returns with her, they find an eerie, near-empty village marked by the remnants of an earlier thriving community.
HEAT 21 is about lost worlds.
In ‘Elin’s Apples’, translated by Michael Hofmann, Swiss author Peter Stamm tells the story of an overworked businesswoman who stumbles upon a girl selling produce in the middle of an industrial zone and, when she follows her into her makeshift shack, is drawn into a life outside of time. In Elizabeth Harrower’s previously unpublished story ‘The Last Days’, Clem, the protagonist from The Catherine Wheel, has one more conversation with the man she had broken all ties with, and feels the pull towards her old life – and the horror of it. In Hon Lai Chu’s ‘Scrap’ (translated by Jacqueline Leung), a billionaire in a future city nostalgically tells his interviewees the story of his rise to power through the collecting and hoarding of discarded babies.
Amy Crutchfield’s five-part poem ‘Nausicaa’ moves sensuously through the charms and traps of holiday in Greece, with its layers of ancient lives sitting just behind the present moment. Alex Wong’s four poems look backwards, forwards and inwards, revealing the strangeness and beauty in a paused moment.
Ivor Indyk’s essay illuminates the practice of three great Australian writers – Les Murray, Gerald Murnane and Alexis Wright – through the lens of ‘Time and Wonder’, demonstrating with rich and curious examples how their fascination with worlds within worlds and worlds beyond worlds can suspend and extend time.
Contents:
Peter Stamm - Elin’s Apples
Alex Wong - Four Poems
Ivor Indyk - Time and Wonder
Elizabeth Harrower - The Last Days
Amy Crutchfield - Two Poems
Hon Lai Chu - Scrap
Catherine Kaixin Yu - Where the Poplars Once Stood
