The Other Side of the World (Stephanie Bishop, Hachette)

Set in the 1960s, The Other Side of the World centres on couple Charlotte and Henry as they struggle with their new identities as a married couple, as parents and eventually, as immigrants. Charlotte is barely coping with the expectations of motherhood, while Henry cannot imagine living through one more English winter. When Charlotte is at her weakest, Henry convinces her to move to Australia. Far from being the solution to their problems, the move only deepens their distance from each other. Like many men of this era, Henry is able to escape the mundanity of 1960s suburbia, leaving Charlotte alone in the relentless heat to deal with the constant demands of two small girls. In her second novel, shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award in 2014 under the title Dream England, Stephanie Bishop skilfully evokes the all-encompassing claustrophobia and entrapment that Charlotte and Henry feel in their individual ways. Her carefully crafted descriptions powerfully depict how loneliness and depression can lead to a hazy relationship with reality. This book will appeal to readers interested in contemporary Australian literature, migration stories, representations of motherhood and how the radical social changes of the 1960s affected marriages. There appears to be a momentous push for this book within Hachette’s list of ‘exciting and unique Australian voices’. I suspect we will be seeing much more of Bishop in the future.

Rachel Wilson is a Melbourne-based media academic and former bookseller

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

Category: Reviews