MacDonald, Caroline
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1948-1997) New Zealand-born author, in Australia in later years, whose first novel, the Young Adult Elephant Rock (1993 chap), is a Timeslip tale whose protagonist reconciles herself to her mother's coming death by visiting moments in her past. Her work tends to focus on young men and women and failures (or modest triumphs) in communication, as in Visitors (1984), whose solution to Communications problems with visiting Aliens redeems his own blocked life; and in The Lake at the End of the World (1988), set in a Near Future where Climate Change has depopulated the planet, except for two tiny Dystopian enclaves in New Zealand, whose refusal to communicate endangers the chance of a human future on Earth until the two young protagonists begin to speak to one another. Most of her short fiction is fantasy, often for younger readers; as are her remaining novels. [JC]
Caroline MacDonald
born Taranaki, New Zealand: 1 October 1948
died Australia: 24 July 1997
works
- Elephant Rock (Auckland, New Zealand: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983) [chap: hb/Garry Meeson]
- Visitors (Auckland, New Zealand: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984) [hb/Garry Meeson]
- The Lake at the End of the World (Auckland, New Zealand: Hodder and Stoughton, 1988) [hb/]
- The Eye Witness (Sydney, New South Wales: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991) [hb/Mike Worrall]
- Through the Witch's Window (Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books/Puffin, 1997) [chap: hb/Mark Sofilas]
collections
- Earthgames: A Writer's Collection (Auckland, New Zealand: Rigby Education, 1988) [coll: chap: hb/]
- Hostilities: Nine Bizarre Stories (New York: Scholastic Book Group/Omnibus, 1991) [coll: pb/Vivienne Goodman and Michel Tcherevkoff]
links
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