Bloodhound

Searching for My Father

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Pub Date 09 Feb 2016 | Archive Date 25 Oct 2015
Text Publishing | Text Publishing Company

Description

"Irresistible . . . generous, warm and fearless."—Kerryn Goldsworthy

"[Koval's] accessibly written foray into the science of DNA and familial lineages, and what makes us who we are, is beautifully intertwined with her meditations on identity and belonging. Koval also seamlessly blends first-hand testimonies and documents from the war into her family history."—Books+Publishing

Ramona Koval's parents fled Poland and settled in Melbourne. As a child, Koval learned little about their lives—only snippets from traumatic tales of destruction and escape. But she always suspected that the man who raised her was not her biological father.

One day in the 1990s, long after her mother's death, she decided she must know the truth. A phone call led to a photograph in the mail, then tea with strangers. Before long Koval was interrogating a nursing-home patient, meeting a horse whisperer in tropical Queensland, journeying to rural Poland, learning other languages, and dealing with Kafkaesque bureaucracy, all in the hope of finding an answer.

A quest for identity recounted with Koval's customary humor, Bloodhound takes hold of the reader and never lets go. It is a moving story of the terrible cost of war and of family secrets.

Ramona Koval is a writer, journalist, broadcaster and editor. From 2006 to 2011 she presented Radio National's Book Show, and she has written for the Age and the Australian. In 1995, Ramona received the Order of Australia Media Award for her work on Radio National.

"Irresistible . . . generous, warm and fearless."—Kerryn Goldsworthy

"[Koval's] accessibly written foray into the science of DNA and familial lineages, and what makes us who we are, is beautifully...


A Note From the Publisher

UK & Ireland release: 26 November, £12.99

UK & Ireland release: 26 November, £12.99


Advance Praise

‘Koval’s painstaking collection of evidence and tracing of clues is as compelling as fiction.’Australian

‘An extraordinary book. The mix of detective work with the personal, family story makes for a unique memoir—a unique kind of memoir: a memoir that reads like a detective novel. I can think of nothing like it.’—Salon II

‘Accompanying Koval as she turns up at strange houses with flowers to solicit photographs, recollections and cell samples in picaresque fashion is made great fun for the reader, largely due to her willingness as a narrator to poke fun at her younger self's almost irresponsible doggedness and overactive imagination...Yet Bloodhound is at its most gripping when it explicitly pits the child's prerogative to know her origins against everybody else's right to forget or remain forever ignorant.’Sydney Morning Herald

‘Koval’s painstaking collection of evidence and tracing of clues is as compelling as fiction.’Australian

‘An extraordinary book. The mix of detective work with the personal, family story makes...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781922182760
PRICE $16.95 (USD)

Average rating from 9 members


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