Book Tour Review: No Place Like Home by Caroline Overington

Title: No Place Like Home

Author: Caroline Overington

Published: Bantam: Random House October 2013

Read an Excerpt

Status: Read from October 07 to 08, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher/Netgalley}

My Thoughts:

No Place Like Home is the fifth novel by award winning Australian journalist Caroline Overington. On an ordinary weekday morning, a young man walks into a shopping centre in the heart of Bondi. No one takes much notice of him, until he begins to run. Months later, former priest and police chaplain, Paul Doherty reflects on the events of that day and all that he has learned since.

The compelling narrative reveals the story of Ali Khan and how he came to be locked in a lingerie store with a bomb chained around his neck. Overington skilfully weaves the stories of those whose lives were touched by Ali Khan into the narrative revealing tales of courage, kindness, cowardice and selfishness, including the aid worker who took pity on the young Tanzanian shunned and mistreated in a refugee camp and Ali’s Australian ‘hostess’ who favoured righteous cause over care. But it is the lives of the four people that shared three hours in the store that Paul unravels more completely, ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary event.

Caroline Overington’s fiction often reflects topical socio-political issues and No Place Like Home is a novel with a strong emphasis on the status of refugee and asylum seekers in Australia. The failure of successive governments to find a balance between ensuring Australia’s national security and the humane processing of ‘boat’ people has created an untenable situation which contributes to the circumstances of the siege and Ali Khan’s fate.

Tragedy seems inevitable but how the events of that day play out is something few will expect and where the responsibility lies will shock you.

No Place Like Home is a poignant and gripping story crafted with skill and compassion. This is a novel that will challenge your prejudice, your knowledge and perhaps even your faith.

Visit Monique at Write Note Reviews and Monique at the Musings of Monique to see what they thought about No Place Like Home

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