The Carpathians

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name = The Carpathians
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author = Janet Frame
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country = New Zealand
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release_date = 1989
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"The Carpathians" is a novel by Janet Frame published in 1989, which won that year's Commonwealth Writers Prize.

In The Carpathians we are presented with a topsy-turvy world. The protagonist is Mattina Brecon from NY. Upon hearing news of the memory flower, Puamahara, she decides to fly to New Zealand to visit a town, which is also called Puamahara, where the Memory Flower actually grows. The flower has a special power in that it releases memories of the land, linking them with the future. Once there, Mattina rents a house on Kowhai Street, where she sets out to take control over her neighbours. They, however, are also time ‘impostors’, brought into existence by the memory of another time and place. The town slowly begins to resemble a cemetery: silent and dead still, with the exception of the abundance of exotic flowers. Mattina begins to unravel the secrets of Kowhai Street and discovers, in her own bedroom, that there is a strong presence...Frame’s ‘The Carpathians’ has strong elements of Magical Realism in it.

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