Wait Here (Lucy Nelson, S&S)

Lucy Nelson’s debut short story collection, Wait Here, is a striking reflection on women’s lives in all their beautiful complexity. Through narratives of varying lengths, Nelson deftly incorporates many perspectives and stories while masterfully leaving some things unsaid, or at least not tied up in neat little bows. Readers can impart their experiences onto some of the stories or gain insight into a life utterly different from their own. Nelson’s characters are stoic, funny, sensitive, vulnerable, quirky, witty, intelligent, raw and resilient – they never fall into the trap of feeling like stereotypes or caricatures. In each story, the primary character is a childless woman, whether by choice or not – a theme that feels especially relevant and resonant in contemporary discussions about womanhood, autonomy and societal expectation. In different eras and settings, the women interact with the world around them – some in everyday ways (a bus ride with a niece; a new friendship at work), and some in magnifications of minutiae (a waiting room and a painting; a dancer’s very bones) – but always looking inwards and reflecting on the things they want from life and whatever has been thrown at them. Funny and heart-wrenching, this collection will stick with you. A winner of a Varuna Fellowship and other awards, Nelson crafts lines that can make you want to read them over and over.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Hannah Cartmel is an editor, former bookseller and co-founder of The Rag & Bone Man Press Inc. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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