Silvey at Success for Library Lovers Day

“I put everything I have into writing Honeybee. It tore me up, but it filled me with joy. I’m enormously proud of it,” the Dwellingup-raised author said.

Learn about this contemporary fast-paced yet lilting tale and celebrate Library Lovers Day at an evening with Silvey at Success Library, 6-7.30pm, on Thursday, 18 February.

Former ABC Perth radio presenter and journalist, and published writer Gillian O’Shaughnessy, will be in conversation with the novelist, uncovering the motivations for his latest bestseller, which was named Dymocks 2020 Book of the Year and has been longlisted for the 2021 Indie Book Awards.

The work of fiction revolves around two troubled souls – young Sam is transgender and Vic is a Vietnam veteran – who meet by chance in less than happy circumstances.

While Sam and Vic appear to face different challenges, loneliness and persecution from within and without are common threads in a sometimes gritty story set in Perth, including scenes in Hamilton Hill.

How these unlikely allies resolve their shared and individual burdens, where a range of memorable characters both complicate and endear, is a tribute to our basic humanity, where friendship and human connection is the panacea for prejudice.

Jasper Jones was adapted as a play by Kate Mulvaney in 2014 and released as a movie directed by Rachel Perkins in 2017, and the success of Honeybee may see a similar outcome.

Limited tickets are $5 per person via Eventbrite opens in a new window. For more information visit the Cockburn Libraries webpage opens in a new window.

Photo by James Grant.