Paula Xiberras
‘A grand piano burns in the night, a séance promises death or forgiveness, a fire rages in a snowstorm, a painter’s final masterpiece inspires betrayal, a child is given away’.
The above blurb on Julian Leatherdale’s first novel ‘Palace of Tears’ immediately captures the reader.
This debut novel is a Gothic fiction masterpiece. The gothic genre, Wikepedia tells us, usually comprises elements such as ‘horror, romance and the demise of characters’ ironically perhaps with ‘a pleasing sort of terror’.
‘Palace of Tears’ includes these elements and more. There is horror with a childhood tragedy, forbidden romances, the loss of some characters and the recovery of others, all with a suitable level of fear and terror. There are ghosts imagined and perhaps some real, a burning piano does so with drama and a visual artistic masterpiece is created.
The main protagonist is Angie who we meet as a child and who, through the novel grows and changes.
The novel demonstrates that even in chaotic circumstances there is evidence for the existence of fate as events unfold that redress the balance and achieve reconciliation for characters past mistakes.
The fictional ‘Palace of Tears’ is based on a real palace of tears, Mark Foy’s hundred year old Hydro Majestic, a cliff clawing and crawling hotel on The Blue Mountains.
In the novel Mark Foy is represented by showman or ringmaster Adam Fox who like an Australian Barnum creates a cornucopia of curiosities, including mermaids to his mysterious mountain mansion as well as entertaining celebrated stars such as Dame Nellie Melba.
Julian is a fan of Kate Morton and Thomas Hardy, the latter who he says he finds inspiring for his ‘mastery of landscape, employment of outrageous plots and incredible coincidences’. Factors Julian employs in the novel and in the tradition of gothic fiction Julian ‘withholds the big dramatic reveal from the reader until the very end’ and what a reveal it is. You might find yourself re-reading some earlier chapters to see the evolution of the surprise.
Mirroring the palaces position on a physical precipice are the characters themselves teetering on their own psychological precipice, the echoing effects of the childhood tragedy.
On a social level the novel also explores the attitudes and reactions of the time and setting on the novel on the German residents of Australia. Julian is particularly sensitive to their plight as he subconsciously recalls his mum once dated a German boy.
Julian is familiar with the landscape of his novel as he himself lives in the Blue Mountains. With a background in theatre (Julian visited Tasmania for a Uni drama festival performance from which he fondly remembers the friends he made). Julian is from a theatrical family with his parents actually meeting in their amateur theatre group in St Kilda.
‘Palace of Tears’ is out now published by Allen and Unwin.
