About the Book
Shadows Over The Sun
This compulsively readable autobiography traces the journey of a remarkably courageous woman from a childhood under Nazi Germany, through her marriage and then emigration to Australia to make a new start by developing an organic winery in McLaren Flat in South Australia. After traumatic experiences she has had to battle with bipolar mental disorder. Giselle tells her story in flawless prose and with compelling honesty.
About the Author
Giselle J Robin
Giselle J. Robin was born in 1935 and grew up in the second world war in Hamburg/Germany. After high school Giselle was accepted as one of the first ten women for a public service career, where she attended the college for public service administration and managed large government projects successfully.
In 1964 Giselle emigrated with her Hungarian husband, Gabor Berenyi, to South Australia, where they founded the first organic winery in Australia. Gabor was the winemaker and Giselle the manager.
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Excerpts
CHILDHOOD IN WORLD WAR II
My entry into this world was not exactly what my parents hoped for. I was supposed to be a boy. They registered me as Gisela
and I was christened in the Lutheran Church with that name, but my parents called me Peter for the rest of their lives. My father didn’t look at me for three months. My mother resented me because of that and also possibly because her father forced her into this marriage while she was engaged to a law student.
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ADMINISTRATION IN THE GOVERNMENT OF HAMBURG
To be eligible for public service, we didn’t only have to pass a test; we also had to prove that three generations of our family were without conviction. Twenty applicants out of four hundred were accepted, including ten females, the first time for the higher appointments to the public service. I was one of them. On 1 April 1952, we were sworn in at a public ceremony in the town hall. I felt great. It was a new start. Read More
THE WINERY
The origins of winemaking in the Hungarian style can be traced back to the sixteenth century in Gabor’s family on their properties in Bacska-Banat. After the First World War, the extensive vineyards of the family fell into Yugoslavian hands. Gabor’s father settled after that in Szeged (Hungary), where he later established his own vineyard and managed another estate. Read More
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