{{Short description|1988 novel by Australian author Helen Hodgman}} {{Use Australian English|date= April 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox book| | name = Broken Words | title_orig = | translator = | image = File:Broken_Words.png | caption = Alternate title for ''Broken Words'' of ''Ducks'' | author = Helen Hodgman | cover_artist = | country = Australia | language = English | series = | genre = Literary novel | publisher = Penguin | release_date = 1988 | media_type = Print | pages = 121 pp. | isbn = 0140102345 | preceded_by = | followed_by = | awards = 1989 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, winner }}
'''''Broken Words''''' is a 1988 novel by the Australian author Helen Hodgman, originally published in Australia by Penguin.<ref name="NLA">{{cite web |title=''Broken Words'' by Helen Hodgman (Penguin) |publisher=National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1941466 |access-date=22 April 2025}}</ref> It is also known by the alternative title ''Ducks'', under which it was published in the USA.<ref name=Austlit>{{cite web|title= Austlit — ''Broken Words'' by Helen Hodgman |publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C223558|access-date= 23 April 2025}}</ref>
It was the winner of the 1989 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.<ref name=NSWPLA>{{cite web|title= Hodgman wins State literary prize|publisher= Sydney Morning Herald, 5 September 1989, p10|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2526306667|access-date= 23 April 2025|id= {{ProQuest|2526306667}}}}</ref>
==Synopsis== Hazel, from the small Queensland town of Goondiwindi, lives on the dole in London in the late 1980s. This novel, in a fractured narrative, tells her story and the story she interacts with.
==Critical reception== Reviewing the novel for ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' Catherine Kenneally found it to be "bleak, funny and savage". She continued "Not only are words broken in this novel, but hearts, minds and bodies as well."<ref>{{cite web|title="Innocents abroad, building lives amid the ruins" |publisher= The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 January 1989, p41|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2526488597|access-date= 23 April 2025|id= {{ProQuest|2526488597}}}}</ref>
==Publication history==
After the novel's initial publication in Australia by Penguin Books<ref name=NLA /> it was reprinted as follows:
* Harmony Books, USA, 1988 (with the title ''Ducks'')<ref name=Austlit /> * Virago Press, UK, 1989<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Broken Words'' by Helen Hodgman (Virago)|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2098362|access-date= 22 April 2025}}</ref> * Anchor, Australia, 1997<ref>{{cite web|title= ''Broken Words'' by Helen Hodgman (Anchor)|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1412483|access-date= 22 April 2025}}</ref>
==Notes== * Dedication: With thanks to Barbara Bridges, Jane Cameron, Irma Havlicek, Roger Hodgman, Suzanne Perkins and Nathan and special thanks to Colin Haycroft for the punctuation and to Meredith Hodgman for the ducks.
==Awards==
* 1989 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, winner<ref name=NSWPLA />
==See also== * 1988 in Australian literature
==References== {{reflist}}
{{New South Wales Premier's Prize for Fiction}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broken Words}} Category:1988 Australian novels Category:1988 English-language novels Category:Christina Stead Prize for Fiction–winning works