Amanda Lohrey

A moving tale of grief, community and the possibility of starting over, by an award-winning Australian author

The Labyrinth: Winner of the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award

The Labyrinth

Nick: so persuasive, ever the optimist, still boyishly handsome. Always on a quest to spin straw into gold, to heal wounded souls.

The conversion was his idea, but it’s Zoe who’s here now, in a valley of old coalmines and new vineyards, working out how to live in a deconsecrated church.

What to do with the altar, all those memorial plaques and the stained-glass windows?

Alone, and troubled by a restless ghost, Zoe is stuck in purgatory—until a young teacher named Melanie barges into her life.

Amanda Lohrey’s The Conversion is a startling and seductive novel about how the homes we live in shape us. Like the bestselling The Labyrinth, it is distinguished by its clear-eyed intelligence, instinct for drama, and effortless readability.

The Conversion 

Robert Dessaix

Drusilla Modjeska

Secrets

I woke with a gasp. And lay in the dark, open-mouthed, holding my breath. That feeling . . . that feeling was indescribable. For a moment I had felt as if I were falling . . . falling into bliss. All his life, Richard Kline has been haunted by a sense that something is lacking. He envies the ease with which others slip into contented suburban life or the pursuit of wealth. As he moves into middle age, Richard grows angry, cynical, depressed. But then a strange event, a profound epiphany, awakens him to a different way of life. He finds himself on a quest, almost against his will, to resolve the “divine discontent” he has suffered since childhood. From pharmaceuticals to New Age therapies to finding a guru, Richard's journey dramatises the search for meaning in today's world. This audacious novel is an exploration of masculinity, the mystical and our very human yearning for something more. It is hypnotic, nuanced and Amanda Lohrey's finest offering yet - a pilgrim's progress for the here and now. Shortlisted, 2015 Queensland Literary Awards Shortlisted, 2015 Tasmanian Premier's Literary Prizes Longlisted, 2016 Stella Prize ‘Lohrey’s language throughout the novel is a searing delight ... Without patronising, disparaging or becoming a sentimental accomplice, she gets inside the head of a serious man congenitally on the brink.’ —Age ‘The nature of such mystical questing requires a steadiness of pace and a commanding style in order to prevent it floating up and away into the unfathomable ... Lohrey’s skill is in keeping us suspended in the cocoon of an idea – “Is this all there is?’ – a question that hums in and out of our own lives during the day, but which can suddenly ring out on dark nights with a deafening thunder.’ —Saturday Paper ‘[A] lyrical, bold exploration’ —Australian Book Review Amanda Lohrey is the author of the acclaimed novels Camille’s Bread, Vertigo and The Morality of Gentlemen, as well as the award-winning short story collection Reading Madame Bovary. She has also written two Quarterly Essays: Groundswell and Voting for Jesus. In 2012 she was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award.

A Novel

A Short History of Richard Kline

The Singing Cure takes the reader on a thought provoking and inspiring journey to unlock the secret of the human voice. Amanda Lohrey succeeds in drawing together so many threads in this seamless and compelling narrative, which shows her to be a master prose writer at the height of her powers.

The Singing Cure

Who are the Greens, where do they come from and where are they going? In the wake of the Cunningham by-election and the Tasmanian results Amanda Lohrey, novelist and political thinker, looks at the philosophical background of the Greens, the history of the campaigns to save the wilderness and the election figures that suggest the Greens are making powerful advances towards becoming the major 'minor' party in Australia. This is a compelling portrait of the Greens and of their leader Bob Brown which depicts them as the most formidable attempt that has been made on the Left to deal with the damage of globalisation. ‘In Australia it is the Green, not the Democrats, who have emerged as the authentic representatives of this developing constituency ... They are not a collection of ersatz Liberals ... [they] are clear on the bottom-line accounting ... There is a crucial sense in which the Greens know where they come from.’ —Amanda Lohrey, Groundswell ‘Bob Brown in Amanda Lohrey's characterisation is certainly a man for all seasons. She emphasizes the skepticism as well as the spirituality and the kind of personal integrity that can hush a House of Parliament by force not of charisma but of conviction.’ —Peter Craven ‘She takes us systematically and in economic detail through the origins of the Green Movement as a new paradigm of what politics is or should be about – the ecological, the knowledgeable, respectful and restrained use of nature.’ —Canberra Times ‘Bringing her novelist’s eye to the history of environmental politics, Amanda Lohery paints a vivid picture of the Greens’ formative decades.’ —the Age Amanda Lohrey has written two Quarterly Essays, Groundswell: The Rise of the Greens and Voting for Jesus: Christianity and Politics in Australia. She is also the author of the novella Vertigo and of the short story collection, Reading Madame Bovary, which won the Fiction Prize and the Steele Rudd Short Story Award in the 2011 Queensland Literary Awards. Her novel, The Philosopher's Doll, was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In 2012 she was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award.

The Rise of the Greens

Quarterly Essay 8 Groundswell

After too many nights of takeaway pizzas, Marita wants just one year off to look after her daughter, Camille. then she meets Stephen, a public servant in the complex process of reinventing himself, training as a shiatsu masseur. As their relationship grows, so does the drama of parenting Camille, in this elegantly crafted, warmly appealing novel of contemporary Australian life.

Camille's Bread

Luke and Anna, thirty-something and restless, decide on a sea change. Worn down by city life and wounded by a loss neither can talk about, they flee to a sleepy village by the coast. There, surrounded by nature, they begin to feel rejuvenated. But when bushfire threatens their new home, they must confront what they have tried to put behind them. Vertigo is a fable of love and awakening by one of Australia's finest writers, about the unexpected way emotions can return and life can change. ‘Vertigo will keep you up much too late but it’s worth a one-sitting read.’ —West Australian ‘Extraordinarily vivid and compelling ... a stunning and memorable novella’ —The Age ‘Lohrey achieves a kind of perfection’ —Sydney Morning Herald 'A carefully crafted little gem of a book’ —Advertiser

Vertigo

Luke and Anna decide on a sea-change. They leave the city, fleeing a past and a future that fill them with fear. On the coast they discover a natural world that is both destructive and rejuvenating. Events sweep them up and they must confront what they have tried to put behind them. Vertigois a fable of love and awakening, a bush pastoral about the unexpected way emotions can return and life can change. 'Amanda Lohrey achieves a kind of perfection'- THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 'A carefully crafted little gem of a book.'- THE ADVERTISER 'Vertigo will keep you up much too late but it's worth a one-sitting read.'- THE WEST AUSTRALIAN

‘The art of the story is mostly about the journey, and the economy of means with which the writers here carry us a great distance is at times breathtaking.’ – Amanda Lohrey In The Best Australian Stories 2014, Patrick White Award–winning author Amanda Lohrey selects the outstanding short fiction of the year. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes raw, and always a ‘shot of adrenaline to the mind and heart’, this collection features exciting new voices alongside the established and admired. The edges of reality blur in a corporate lawyer’s tale of working in a 1200-storey glass tower. A prized coffee table becomes the focus of a father’s anxieties and frustrations. Tense and fractured lines of communication shape the life of an interpreter on Christmas Island. Imaginative, remarkable, intimate – this unmissable anthology celebrates the art of consummate storytelling. Julienne Van Loon • Shaun Prescott • Lucy Neave • Anthony Panegyres • Nicola Redhouse • Edwina Shaw • Claire Corbett • Fiona Place • Kate Elkington • Arabella Edge • Claire Aman • Angela Meyer • J.Y.L. Koh • Rebekah Clarkson • Ryan O'Neill • Mark Smith • Anna Krien • David Brooks • Leah Swann • Kirsten Tranter • Lisa Jacobson • Melanie Joosten

The Best Australian Stories 2014

A woman finds her everyday life engulfed by vivid fantasies, a businessman explores new ways to deal with his rage, a young woman is stuck on a boat with a bunch of delinquents, a diary is discovered, a commune goes wrong .In this captivating collection of short fiction, award-winning novelist Amanda Lohrey explores the dilemmas of modern life. Her characters find themselves caught between body and spirit, memory and desire, ambition and mortality - and they must transform themselves or be trapped.Shot through with a serene intelligence, these tales enlighten and entertain in equal measure.

Reading Madame Bovary

Some readers are drawn to the promise inherent in a novel, and it’s true that the longer form can offer a slow and seductive immersion, but the short story offers pleasure of another kind – the quick fix, a shot of adrenaline to the mind and heart.—Amanda Lohrey In The Best Australian Stories 2015, Amanda Lohrey, winner of the Patrick White Award and author of the acclaimed novel A Short History of Richard Kline, curates twenty pieces of exceptional short fiction. In this wide-ranging collection, there are stories that will surprise, unsettle and beguile readers. Familiar subjects are examined from new perspectives: a teenage girl sneaks into a famous film director's study and steals his diaries; the life of Picasso is reimagined in miniature vignettes. And new life is breathed into the most universal of experiences: birth, death, love and loss. The mother of a girl with hearing difficulties watches her child grow into increasing independence. A young woman makes a poignant voyage to the site of her brother’s suicide. Elegant, accomplished and evocative, these short stories move, delight and inspire. Goldie Goldbloom • John A Scott • Claire Corbett • Cate Kennedy • Melissa Beit • Colin Oehring • Gay Lynch • Eleanor Limprecht • Julie Koh • Jo Lennan • Omar Musa • Ryan O'Neill • Sarah Klenbort • Jo Case • Balli Kaur Jaswal • Jennifer Down • Nick Couldwell • Nicola Redhouse • Annette Trevitt • Mark Smith

Amanda Lohrey

Books

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