4 minute read
A Peninsula tale of secrets and intrigue
Ahead of his upcoming novel
The Uneasy Silence, which draws inspiration from life on the Mornington Peninsula, author Mate Antolos speaks to Sarah Halfpenny about the stories that shaped his writing.
What inspired you to write The Uneasy Silence?
The inspiration is life on the Peninsula, from the day-to-day people who make up the area to the Christmas rush when we locals chastise the tourists who make life busy for us. Also, the unheralded star of the Peninsula is the ever-changing scenery and panorama, which we take for granted. The characters and storyline come from my time as a courier on the Peninsula, the people I met and the stories they told of how they came to be in towns such as Rosebud, Rye, and Crib Point. As I drove around, I was able to observe us and understand what makes up our collective psyche. I wanted to highlight a multicultural country that does have its teething problems like gang violence, but eventually we all become Aussies and we have our own culture that everyone has brought to this great southern land and thrown into the melting pot of our society.
How did you develop the character of the protagonist, Emir ‘Eddy’ Muravic?
Muravic is the immigrant son and I developed him from my own experiences. I was never really involved in the Croatian community in Melbourne and I never married within the Croat diaspora, much to the ire of my mum and dad, although eventually they seemed to respect my way of thinking. I wanted to show the point of view of a person who had ethnic origins and that he was Australian, but he was shunned by his own community because he believed being Australian was paramount. I am proud of my parents’ origins – I do speak the language and have travelled to Croatia as a tourist – but I feel I am an Australian first and foremost.
Tell us about how writing The Uneasy Silence helped you mourn the loss of your parents.
I miss them dearly. The characters of Branko and Nura are loosely based on my mother and father. It helped me recreate their presence. Bringing them both back to life as characters brought a sense of peace and helped me preserve their story, from immigrating to a new country in the early 1960s, their work lives, and eventually their retirement to the Mornington Peninsula. I hope other people who have immigration stories can relate to these characters.
How does the Peninsula setting contribute to the narrative of The Uneasy Silence?
I wanted to show that where there is beauty in places such as Sorrento and Portsea, there is also an ugliness, and that we should all question things in life no matter where we are visiting. I chose Sorrento, as I spent countless summers visiting my mum and dad, and when Dad passed in 2013, I moved down and became my mum’s sole carer for 10 years. I felt a different kind of story had to be told, and I wanted it to be seen through the eyes of locals who felt threatened by the new tourism that was turning their quiet hamlet/village life into a fast-paced copy of Melbourne.
What can readers expect from your next novel, The Fall, and how does it connect to The Uneasy Silence?
In the prequel to The Uneasy Silence, prior to being promoted to a lead detective, the AFP’s detective Sergeant Emir ‘Eddy’ Muravic is in Croatia on holiday with his young family and his parents in June 2013. His holiday is put on hold as he investigates the death of the Attorney-General’s daughter, Avigail Iverson, whose body has been found in a river in Krka National Park near his parents’ birthplace of Murter. It’s loosely based on the Britt Lapthorne case, which happened in Dubrovnik many years ago.
