The Secret History of the Rainbow Trout Private Hotel

The Secret History of the Rainbow Trout Private Hotel by David Metzenthen (Ford Street Publishing) PB RRP $19.95 ISBN 978192269627

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

Country boy Andy Lightfoot is on his gap year and, upon a recommendation from a fellow backpacker, sets his sights on Lake Grace as his next destination. After a two-hour bus trip, he arrives in the wilderness at a place with no village, no backpackers’ hostel, and no phone reception. What Lake Grace does offer is the Rainbow Trout Private Hotel, a heritage-listed building that seems to be in a state of hibernation.

The hotel is run by the McGinn family who offer Andy work in exchange for food and board. During his four-month stay, Andy gets to know each member of the McGinn family as well as meeting a diverse range of visitors that stay at the hotel. While he doesn’t make any money during his time at Lake Grace, he earns a whole lot more in life experience.

The Secret History of the Rainbow Trout Private Hotel is a beautifully written young adult novel with a strong sense of place and an eclectic cast of characters. Its themes include conservation, greed, family dynamics, and differing world views.

Augustin and the Hot Air Balloon

Augustin and the Hot Air Balloon by David Metzenthen (Ford Street) ISBN 9781925804966 RRP $17.95

Reviewed by Nean McKenzie

In 1783, around the time of the French Revolution, the Montgolfier brothers launched a balloon made of silk near the palace of Versailles. The basket below contained a duck, a sheep, and a rooster. Augustin and the Hot Air Balloon takes this historical event and supposes what would have happened if there were a couple of young people who stowed away in the basket. And furthermore, what if the balloon flew off and crash landed somewhere? The result is an action-packed adventure story and an interesting re-imagining of life during this time.

An unlikely friendship develops between the main characters, a peasant boy named Augustin and a rich girl called Celine, who is a friend of Queen Marie Antoinette. They must return to the palace through the wild country of France, through villages where people are starving. At the beginning of each chapter there is an interesting historical fact related to the events of the chapter, for example there really was a priceless diamond necklace that went missing around the time the balloon was launched. Also, around that time there was a volcano in Iceland that erupted and affected the weather. As a result, crops failed, and people starved.  

Augustin is a likeable and brave main character who wants a better life, but he is also incredibly loyal to his family. Celine, who is from Austria like Marie Antoinette, is also courageous. She is clued into the intrigue in the court of Versailles and when she and Augustin get back there, she helps them to survive. As the events of the French Revolution come to a climax, Celine makes an escape plan. As we know from history, being a rich person at that time was very dangerous. But for Celine, at least, it is a happy ending. Augustin also must make a choice: to go with the girl he loves or stay and help his family.

If you look closely at the cover of Augustin and the Hot Air Balloon all the aspects of the story are combined, with the large balloon in the centre. This book of historical fiction is suitable for readers 10-15 years old. 

Dreaming the Enemy

Dreaming the Enemy by David Metzenthen (Allen & Unwin) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN 9781760112257

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

The lives of thousands of young Australian men were changed in the 1960s when names were drawn from a ballot so they could be sent to fight in the war in Vietnam. Johnny (Shoey) Shoebridge, the protagonist in Metzenthen’s latest novel, is a returned Vietnam vet, who suffers PTSD.

The reader is taken inside Shoey’s head as he tries to rationalize his time in war and as he wonders about fitting into post-war life.  Desperately he tries to build his sense of self in the aftermath of a horrific episode in his life when he was ordered to kill. He constantly re-visits the battlegrounds and becomes obsessed with a Viet Cong ghost-fighter called Khan.

Disassociating, Shoey ‘sees’ Khan and others – Thang and Trung – his mind constantly switching from the Vietnam jungle to the present when he is alone in a fishing hut trying to recover. Shoey has, writes Metzenthen, ‘amassed a dose of fury’ and ‘his scars were like armour.’ In ‘the dark pressing reaches of his mind,’ he recalls everything he knew in war from ‘a severed brown hand found after a firefight’ to ‘a smack of a bullet hitting a jaw.’ The reader reaches inside Shoe’s hyper-vigilant mind and roots for him to ‘move on’ which his family and friends urge him to do. But of course it is not as easy as simply wanting to do this.

This confronting book will challenge any sensitive reader. Metzenthen is a fine writer who is skilled at characterisation, writing with flair, elegance and beautifully crafted sentences. This is a deeply moving novel by one of Australia’s top YA authors which is sure to enthrall (mostly) boy readers aged 13 years and up. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Dreaming the Enemy being short-listed for literary awards.