I came across this Australian book on Reading Matters, one of my favorite sources for Australian literature. The author lives in Western Australia, in Perth, and is a journalist who has written two non-fiction books, as well as two novels.
Nessa tells us her story: she spends lots of time and money covering the scars on her face each morning but we don’t learn what happened until well into the novel. She works at a care home for the aged, who she calls “the lovelies,” and goes in early each day to exchange stories, some true, some not, with Hannah. She has friend at work, Campbell, and it is mentioned that he does have the same name as a kind of soup.
Nessa was given land several hours drive from where she lived that she has used to create a women’s retreat that she runs several times a year. This has been a family project that her father, her sister Maya, and Maya’s husband have helped set up. The book opens with participants at the end of the most recent session describing how much this time has meant to them.
Maya’s teenage daughter Lily is immersed in the world of social media; Nessa asks her to help raise the profile of Navada, the retreat. Lily is drawn out of her withdrawal and makes a success of that effort. After she began posting pictures, the retreats were fully booked well in advance. Reflecting on this, Lily said she could see by doing this work on behalf of someone else, that social media lost its power over her.
Nessa tells us that Maya is beautiful, especially her hair, she says several times. This instance is typical of the low key humor of this book that I loved: when she goes into her father’s hospital room, Maya is already there. “Dad’s room is quiet and dark when I push open the door. I see Maya’s hair tumbling down the back of the chair like a performance, Dad motionless in the bed.”
The variety of characters was appealing, making for many storylines. There’s the teenager, first tortured by social media, then using it for a positive goal, there are the lovelies, nearing the end of their lives who find joy in telling their stories, and there are the women attending the retreats who consider their lives and whether they might make changes. And of course there’s Nessa, her family, and its complications. It was a pleasing assembly of stories.
Carrie Cox, Storylines, W.T.Howes LTD, 2023, 288 pages (I listened to the audiobook).