Author(s): Madeleine Watts

Fiction | Anna's Book Talkers

A fierce and beautiful novel about coming of age in a dying world.

CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: ANNA

This book was absolutely fabulous and is definitely a strong contender for my favourite book of the year.

I am really enjoying reading Australian fiction at the moment, there is something so lovely about stories set in familiar places, and stories that reflect your experiences back at you. Madeline Watts captures so perfectly the feeling of being 20-something and feeling so lost and adrift in your own life. I am a similar age to the narrator, and her growing anxiety about climate change really resonated with me. Towards the end of the book she paints a picture of how rising sea levels will impact Sydney – her home and mine – and I have been unable to shake that image from my mind.

This book is an incredible read. The writing is visceral and haunting and absolutely beautiful. I think it is a story that will stay with me for a long time, and it is one that I look forward to revisiting in the future.