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Cassandra Atherton, “I am the jungle’ A deft take on Virgil, Australian Book Review, August, 2024
‘In an exquisite, braided narrative, Catherine McKinnon’s To Sing of War reanimates World War 11 in a paean to the environment. Set between December 1944 and August 1945, the narrators experience the ways “Violence is malleable, it is everywhere”, but find healing and resilience in “the heart of the earth”’.
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The Saturday Paper, James Bradley, ‘Catherine McKinnon, To Sing of War’
Catherine McKinnon’s last novel, the Miles Franklin-shortlisted Storyland, is one of the more striking Australian novels of recent years. Spanning almost a thousand years, from the 1700s to the 28th century, it powerfully captures the links between colonial destruction and ecological crisis and speaks to the violence inherent in trying to understand the human in separation from the natural world.
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Books & Publishing, Emma Pei Yin, ‘To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon, HarperCollins)’
From Miles Franklin–shortlisted author Catherine McKinnon (Storyland), To Sing of War confronts the interconnectedness that binds humanity. Against the backdrop of WWII, we find ourselves immersed in the jungles of New Guinea, where a young Australian nurse, Lotte Wyld, encounters her first love, Virgil.
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The Conversation, Brigid Magner, ‘Catherine McKinnon’s panoramic new novel presents a gritty view of war’s complexity’.
Catherine McKinnon graduated from Flinders University Drama Centre, South Australia, and was a founding member of the Red Shed Theatre Company, where she worked as writer and director.
After a period in South Australian theatre, she moved to Sydney to complete a Masters in Creative Writing at UTS, where she began her first novel, The Nearly Happy Family (2008). She followed it with Storyland (2017), written while undertaking her PhD.
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Good Reading Magazine, Anne Green, ‘To Sing of War by Catherine McKinnon’. (Five Stars).
Catherine McKinnon’s last novel, Storyland, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, and it’s worth betting that To Sing of War will attract just as much, if not more, critical acclaim. McKinnon skilfully interweaves three separate narratives in a multilayered amalgamation of history and fiction.
Lotte Wyld is a young Australian nurse serving in New Guinea in 1944 where the Australian forces are conducting an operation to drive out the remaining Japanese. Soon after arriving, Lotte runs into Virgil Nicholson, an Australian soldier with whom she shares a fractured romantic history.
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ANZ LitLovers Lit Blog ‘To Sing of War (2024) by Catherine McKinnon
Seven years after the Miles Franklin Award shortlisted Storyland, author Catherine McKinnon has published a remarkable new novel, To Sing of War. I really liked and admired Storyland (see here) so I didn’t hesitate.
As you will know if you’ve been following my adventures with Shooting Blanks at the Anzac Legend by Donna Coates, you will know that I am fascinated by Australia’s preoccupation with war fiction, and have even set up a page in the top menu to list the novels I know about. To Sing of War will join the long list of WW2 novels, but is one of the few to be set in the Pacific War, and Papua New Guinea in particular. (The Offspring’s paternal grandfather spent his war in PNG, though he never spoke about it, so this has added interest for me.)
Podcasts and Interviews
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The Book Show
Sarah L’Strange interviews Catherine McKinnon about To Sing of War
The Book Show, Claire Nichols
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The Book Shelf
The Book Shelf, Kate Evans and Richard Aedy.
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
A short mention by Kate Evans about To Sing of War around the 15 min mark
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Woollahra Library
Woollahra Library
Michaela Kowalski interviews Catherine McKinnon about To Sing of War
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The Book Shelf
The Book Shelf, Kate Evans and Richard Aedy.
Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
ABC 2024 Best Books
You can see the full list of the best books and listen to the podcast here
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Discussions about To Sing of War
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Stanton Library (Sydney), Author Talk
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Talking Aussie Books, with Claudine Tinellis