Shadows of Olive Trees

Shadows of Olive Trees, a YA novel by Suzanne Gervay

Chapter 1: 
She can't remember when she hadn't retreated behind the brick fence isolating the school in the red light district. It's an old church inner city school. Expensive. Only girls. Built before the prostitutes, drug dealers, homeless took possession.

Questions:

1.     It’s the second rise of feminism, and young women are navigating their rights. Do you regard it as important for young women of today to understand the journey so they can understand where they are today? 

2.     There are three girlfriends, Tessa, Athena and Jenny. Their relationships have the intensity of youth at this turbulent time in the 70s. What do you imagine their challenges are? Are they the same as today? What choices do they have to make as best friends?

3.     Is raising consciousness of feminism through story significant on International Women’s Day? 

4.     Spectrum SMH wrote that ‘This is a story of friendship and love, reminding me of Looking for Alibrandi.’ Shadows of Olive Trees crystalizes the conflict between old traditions and freedom for girls. Is that still happening today?

Print, ebook and Audio on AMAZON:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Shadows-Olive-Trees-Susanne-Gervay-ebook/dp/B07SXCTNCH

 

Google audio - http://surl.li/bhsly

 

https://sgervay.com/shadows-of-olive-trees/

 

 

Shadows of Olive Trees

The audio of Susanne Gervay's YA novel Shadows of Olive Trees has just been released! Susanne's days at university in 1970s were filled with the evolving rights for women - the first test tube baby, the pill, first women's refuge, brave new feminist literature including The Female Eunuch, gender equality, the first International Women's Day.  Shadows of Olive Trees is that second rise of feminism which was the forerunner to the #MeToo  movement and the inspiring election in 2021 of Kamala Harris the first female, first Black and first South Asian US Vice President.  Now that it is in audio, it is accessible to everyone globally. In Kamala Harris’s words. ‘What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters.’    

Now it has been released as an audio book available on audible and most platforms:- Shadows of Olive Trees audiobook are now up on Google Play:  https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Susanne_Gervay_Shadows_of_Olive_Trees?id=AQAAAEB8OD94UM

Also available through ebook and in print through Amazon https://www.amazon.com.au/Shadows-Olive-Trees-Susanne-Gervay/dp/0648203549

Shadows of Olive Trees

Shadows of Olive Trees by Susanne Gervay PB RRP $24.99 ISBN

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

Originally published in 1996, this young adult novel has proved very popular, especially with teenage girls. Set in the mid-1970's in the inner suburb of Sydney, it focuses on the emerging women’s movements as well as on the passions of young women searching for adult identity.

Tessa Kassis, aged eighteen, lives with her Greek migrant parents and younger brother. Confined by the cultural restrictions of her parents, she is trying to live the life of an Australian teenager while keeping her parents’ love and maintaining some Greek traditions. She befriends Athena and Jenny, two young women who join her in searching for independence and identity.

The author Gervay is the daughter of Hungarian refugees who migrated to Australia hoping to rebuild their lives and to be accepted in their new country while trying to maintain their own culture, so she has experienced Tessa’s dilemmas. Like her book hero Tessa, she also developed a passion for women’s rights at a time of the emerging women’s movement.

While Tessa has a dutiful respect for the cultural festivals and religious customs of her family, she faces a dilemma in wanting to live an Australian life. This dilemma causes drama, for example when she disagrees with her controlling but loving father who insists she has a chaperone such as on a university geography excursion. And, too, he insists on finding a Greek husband for her, but she rejects this as she has fallen in love with her professor, David.

There are numerous issues which Gervay tackles, not just cultural conflict, but also the importance of female friendships and sexual issues. Against a background of family traditions and restrictions, she explores Tessa’s growing awareness of her sensuality and her enjoyment of learning.

Shadows of Olive Trees is ideal for adaptation to film as it would educate and entertain a new generation of readers. It is a story of women's empowerment that has relevance today for women and men.