First Name Second Name, Steve MinOn
First Name Second Name, Steve MinOn
List: $22.00 | Sale: $15.40
Club: $11.00

First Name Second Name

Author: Steve MinOn

Narrator: Siho Ellsmore, Harvey Zielinski

Unabridged: 8 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/04/2025


Synopsis

The journey will be long and difficult, one thousand miles. Try not to be too obvious. Stick to the backroads. You’ ll know you’ ve arrived when you get there. Stephen Bolin leaves a bizarre note by his deathbed, asking his sisters to take his body back to his birthplace in Far North Queensland. When they ignore his request, Stephen’ s corpse makes the nocturnal pilgrimage alone. But what is compelling him and what will he find there? His journey, as a kind of jiangshi, takes him back through his turbulent family history: from his Chinese great-grandfather’ s life on the goldfields in 1860s Queensland, to his Scottish grandparents’ migration to Australia as ten-pound Poms, and to his own coming of age and coming out in Brisbane and London. Original and satirical, First Name Second Name follows four generations of one family through a reckoning with racial, familial and sexual identity.

About The Author

Steve MinOn was an internationally awarded advertising copywriter and a restaurateur before becoming a writer of fiction. He grew up in North Queensland and he now lives in Meanjin/Brisbane. Steve has written often about outsiders and his family’ s mixed-race ancestral history, and his articles and short stories have been published in SBS Voices, Mamamia and various anthologies. He won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards for First Name Second Name.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Garth on January 02, 2025

A poignant, spectral migrant’s tale spanning generations. Steve’s deeply felt tale of otherness, familial bonds and the supernatural make for a peerlessly deft, moving debut.......more

Goodreads review by Sheree on April 12, 2025

First Name Second Name is an odd book, and I’m not sure where to place it. It’s not a straight ghost story, but it’s not straight historical fiction, either. I think I would have been more engaged by it if it had been structured differently, or leaned more definitively in either direction. MinOn cle......more

Goodreads review by Clare on March 15, 2025

First Name Second Name was beautifully written, and I was particularly impressed with how the intercepting storylines were executed. They kept me engaged and eager to discover what would happen next. Although the story spans multiple generations, the pacing felt just right. I never felt rushed, yet t......more

Goodreads review by Jennine on January 04, 2025

An eye-opening and profound exploration of the complexities of race, sexuality and the intricate web of family trees. A truly beautiful read.......more

Goodreads review by Vicki on April 19, 2025

First Name Second Name takes the reader on an odyssey through a Queensland life. Original and imaginative in both story and style, this debut book from Steve MinOn is both poignant and questioning. Skilfully and beautifully written with a gentle touch of pathos, layered, yet cleared-eyed, First Name......more