Kirsty Murray

The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie by Kirsty Murray

This book was published in 2014, so it is more recent than most of the children’s timeslip novels which I read. Nevertheless, it certainly feels as if it belongs with the classics of this genre of literature, which includes such wonderful stories as Tom’s Midnight Garden and When Marnie Was There.

Lucy is eleven years old and lives in Australia with her parents and brother and sister. When her older sister, Claire, is injured in an accident while studying in Paris, their mother rushes to Europe to be with Claire in hospital. Since her father has important work to attend to, Lucy is taken to stay with her great aunt who lives in a house in an isolated valley in the Australian bush. Lucy has only vague memories of her aunt, and she is not at all happy about having to live with her, especially as the period will include the Christmas holiday. But soon she discovers that the murals painted on the dining room walls, each of which depict a different season in the valley, are no ordinary paintings. On successive nights when her aunt is asleep, Lucy finds that the murals allow her to enter a magical place where she meets her ancestors and plays an important part in shaping the history of her family.

The author unites past and present using clever plot devices, and the Australian bush is vividly described in all its beauty and unforgiving ruggedness. The same river that flows through the valley in both the past and present times symbolizes the relentless flow of time, and is inextricably intertwined with this powerful story of family relationships and the continuity of life. This is magical realism in a most poignant and compelling form.
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