The Riding Gallery by Sally Murphy

Title: The Riding Gallery

Author: Sally Murphy

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Walker Books

Published: 3^rd July 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 176

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: Exploring the true story of the St Kilda merry go round during World War 1, by Australia’s most revered verse novelist

In Melbourne’s St Kilda, as World War 1 begins, Anton, a German immigrant fulfils his dream of creating the most beautiful steam-driven “riding gallery” – a merry go round – in the world. Evelyn, who has just moved to the city befriends local boy Rory, but the war, and anti-German sentiment, soon takes its toll on the children, Anton, their families, and the riding gallery itself.

Based on true events, this is a cleverly structured, multiple point-of-view story, including poems created from contemporaneous newspaper headlines, and Sally Murphy at her finest form.

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Meet Rory, Evelyn and Anton. As war breaks out in 1914, Evelyn and her family move to St Kilda, next door to Rory and his family, and Anton, a German immigrant is building a steam-driven riding gallery. Rory is the youngest boy in his family – and three older brothers have marched off to war, to an unknown halfway across the world in Europe. Rory and Evelyn tell their story through alternating and sometimes shared poems that show their similarities and differences, and how they respond to the world, with Anton’s poems mixed in.

Verse novels like this can tell a story succinctly and evocatively, using different perspectives that make this story work well. It allows for the three voices to remain unique and accessible, and for readers to see how the war affected people in different ways in Australia – from a family whose sons were overseas in Gallipoli and France, a young girl who has just moved somewhere and wants to see the best in everyone and the wonders around her, and an immigrant who is loyal to Australia but seen as a threat because of his name. Anton was a character I found myself backing, because all he wanted to do was create something beautiful for his community in a time of horror, when people were losing husbands, sons, and brothers, and the realities of war would come home in telegrams, letters, and injured soldiers who had lost limbs, friends, and sometimes, a lot more. In using poems and verse to convey this, the impact hits differently in a way – it’s quite poignant, highlighting how personal the war could become, even though Australia was far from the action.

What makes this story work well is the history behind it, and the creation of newspaper poems from World War One news articles gives it a sense of gravitas that ensures the reader understands the heaviness of the topic of war, and how it affected people. The power of a war story told through the eyes of children who only see the good in people, particularly Evelyn allows it to be accessible to many readers of all ages – for readers to see what life was like in Australia at this time, and what growing up was like. And the poignancy of the true story behind the riding gallery and the memories it holds and will hold for those who enjoyed it. This is a great book to highlight the ways different people live and respond to the world around them and their community – and what tragedy can do to a town, tearing them apart or bringing them together.

This was an exceptional novel using a true story, one that perhaps many people don’t know about to show the impacts of war on a community and how it can change things for years. Another great verse novel to add to the collection.