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The Hummingbird Effect
- Narrated by: Anthea Greco
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
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Publisher's Summary
An epic, kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread and their determination to shape their own stories, from the acclaimed author of The Mother Fault.
Shortlisted for the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2024
Longlisted for the Stella Prize and Indie Book Awards 2024
Sydney Morning Herald Best Reads of the Year for 2023
One of the lucky few with a job during the Depression, Peggy’s just starting out in life. She’s a bagging girl at the Angliss meatworks in Footscray, a place buzzing with life as well as death, where the gun slaughterman Jack has caught her eye – and she his.
How is her life connected to Hilda’s, almost a hundred years later, locked inside during a plague, or La’s, further on again, a singer working shifts in a warehouse as her eggs are frozen and her voice is used by AI bots? Let alone Maz, far removed in time, diving for remnants of a past that must be destroyed? Is it by the river that runs through their stories, eternal yet constantly changing – or by the mysterious Hummingbird Project, and the great question of whether the march of progress can ever be reversed?
Propulsive, tender and engrossing, this genre-bending novel is a feast for the heart as well as the mind and senses. For fans of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Michelle de Kretser’s The Life to Come and Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House, it confirms Mildenhall as one of the most ambitious and dynamic writers in the country.
'Kate Mildenhall is such an exciting writer to read … This generous, playful novel speaks to themes of climate change, survival and holding space for each other, as well as the enduring power of female friendship.' The Guardian
‘Spellbinding, genre-defying, and powerful in its vision of the future … The Hummingbird Effect is a devastating novel that exposes the ways the future is seeded in the past.’ Australian Book Review
Critic Reviews
What listeners say about The Hummingbird Effect
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- lisa
- 29-11-2023
Perhaps too many storylines
I really wanted to love this book. Each of individual storylines and characters were interesting but those storylines ultimately came up short.
The overreaching messages are admirable but overall I found it a little bit Meh
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- Anonymous User
- 25-08-2023
Wowee, hummingbird heaven
Absolutely loved this book. Three story threads interwoven. Drawn together expertly at the story’s end.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-11-2023
Great story across time + place
Really enjoyed this clever multi-layered novel, particularly the way not every story thread is tied up and resolved by the ends but instead leaves you wondering. Sliding doors. Good narration too.
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- Amazon Customer
- 16-11-2023
Interesting Connective Story through Time
Loved the concepts of connections through the generations. Really interesting ideas around the future world. Felt like I wanted more.
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- Richard I.
- 01-02-2024
Good Intentions are not enough
A blandly undigested laundry-list of themes, crudely arranged without metaphor or compelling characterisation. The breathlessly smug narration doesn’t help.
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