Author(s): Amanda Lohrey

Australian Authors

Erica Marsden's son, an artist, has been imprisoned for homicidal negligence. In a state of grief, Erica cuts off all ties to family and friends, and retreats to a quiet hamlet on the south-east coast near the prison where he is serving his sentence.

There, in a rundown shack, she obsesses over creating a labyrinth by the ocean. To build it--to find a way out of her quandary--Erica will need the help of strangers. And that will require her to trust, and to reckon with her past.

The Labyrinthis a hypnotic story of guilt and denial, of the fraught relationship between parents and children, that is also a meditation on how art can both be ruthlessly destructive and restore sanity. It shows Amanda Lohrey to be at the peak of her powers.

Staff notes: A woman moves to a small coastal town to be closer to the prison where her son is incarcerated. There, she decides to build a labyrinth, which came to her in a dream. This quiet, gorgeous novel charts a difficult inward journey from despair to hope, depicting complex relationships, material love and suffering, creativity and labour. For readers of Charlotte Wood. Recommended by Charlotte