I have just read a book by an author totally unknown to me and was completely blown away by it.
Cate Kennedy is fairly well known in Australia where she lives and the book is set. Her first novel, “The World Beneath” is about an absent father coming back into his daughters life when she is 15 for them to go into the wilderness on a journey of self discovery and bonding.
Kennedy says ‘I wanted to write a book about stasis... about people spinning their wheels and then encountering a crisis that knocks them sideways’. This book is about change and redemption, but not in any corny or simple sense. The plot the tells a story of an unhappy family: Rich, a nomadic, self-obsessed photographer; Sandy, his wacky, New-Age, fractious and estranged partner; and their ‘emo goth’ daughter, Sophie, a 15-year-old full of anger and fiercely intelligent. These characters are so skilfully drawn that they are not the stereotypes a lesser writer could have made them. They engage and move us, seeming utterly plausible, and are situated convincingly in the narrative of transformation.
There are many comments on contemporary society. I especially liked how Sophie is left first without her mobile and then without her ipod after the batteries expire removing her digital protection from the dramatic Tasmanian mountain landscape.
It is an excellent read, feisty, intelligent and closely written. I highly recommend it!
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