Golden Age

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A01=Joan London
Adolescence
Assimilation
Australia
Author_Joan London
Bildungsroman
Category=FV
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eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
Exile
Family
Family Fiction
Historical Fiction
Holocaust
Hospital
Hungarian
Illness
Immigration
Jewish
Love
Marriage
Music
Polio
Post-War
World War II
Youth

Product details

  • ISBN 9781787706194
  • Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
  • Publication Date: 07 May 2026
  • Publisher: Europa Editions (UK) Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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A deeply moving novel about resilience and youth 

Frank Gold’s Jewish-Hungarian family have fled Europe and the looming threat of Nazi Germany for the safety of Australia. Not long after their arrival, however, thirteen-year-old Frank is diagnosed with polio and is sent to a sprawling children’s hospital called the Golden Age. There he meets Elsa, the most beautiful girl he has ever seen.  

Frank and Elsa’s love fuels their rehabilitation and scandalizes the prudish staff of the Golden Age. Meanwhile, their parents are coping with challenges of their own. Elsa’s mother Margaret must reconcile her hopes and dreams with her daughter’s illness; Frank’s mother Ida, a renowned pianist in Hungary, refuses to let the empty western deserts of Australia become her home, while his father Meyer slow finds a place for himself in the Perth of the early 1950s. 

A modern classic, Joan London’s The Golden Age is a moving story documenting the transition between illness and recovery, childhood and maturity, and life and death.

Joan London is the author of the short story collections Sister Ships, winner of The Age Book of the Year award, and Letter to Constantine, winner of the Steele Rudd Award as well as the West Australian Premier's Award for Fiction. Her three novels are Gilgamesh, The Good Parents, and The Golden Age. 

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