Starting in pre-war suburban Melbourne, it tells the story of the working-class Westaway family over the following seventy years. Each of the nine characters has a devoted chapter in which they narrate the details of their particular life-changing day: thus Nine Days. 

• Full Title: Nine Days 

• When Written: 2011 

• Where Written: Melbourne, Australia 

• When Published: 2012 

• Literary Period: Contemporary 

• Genre: Novel, Historical Fiction 

• Setting: Melbourne, Australia 

• Climax: Connie makes love to Jack in the Hustings’ stable 

• Antagonist: 

• Point of View: Nine first-person narrative 

Genre

• A historical novel that plays with ideas of placing invented characters into a reconstructed world of the past.

• Uses elements of both realism and impressionism to create the text.

Realist Elements:

• A strong focus on everyday life within a particular society with reference to real historical detail.

• Incorporates a logical and strong foundation of context that can be easily digested and believed by the reader.

• Can use an omniscient narrator (all-knowing).

Impressionist Elements:

• Each chapter offers detail and presents a vivid interpretation of specific events.

• Sensory experiences are emphasised by the use of descriptive and poetic language.

• The linear flow of the narrative is disrupted by its construction in a non-chronological order, thereby forcing the reader to piece the whole narrative together at the end.

    (Lisa's Guides)

Language

• Varied depending on the character’s perspective and time of perspective.

• Language is used to historicise each chapter through use of slang, colloquialisms, formal and proper English.

Setting

• The novel revolves around the Westaway’s family home in Rowena Parade, Richmond over the course of four generations.

• Rather than them move or the location change it evolves, paralleling the growth and evolution undergone by each of the Westaway family members.

Structure

• Inspired by a photograph in the collection of Argus war photos held at the State Library of Victoria, Jordan uses this image capturing a private and intimate moment to establish the premise for each of the book's chapters.

• Titled Nine Days and composed of nine unique perspectives on life at a given time, Jordan offers insight into the emotional livelihood of each narrator and attaches both intimate and historical significance to their stories.