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The Light on the Water (Olga Lorenzo, A&U)

Recently divorced Anne Forster heads to Wilson’s Promontory on an overnight bushwalk with her six-year-old autistic daughter Aida and returns home alone. Although no body is found, Anne is charged with her daughter’s murder. Two years later, on bail and awaiting trial, she is subject to accusations and judgments from friends, family, media and a community that largely doubts her innocence. In The Light on the Water, Olga Lorenzo has deftly constructed the inner and outer world of a character not always likeable but seemingly incapable of committing the crime with which she is charged. In almost forensic detail, Lorenzo unpacks Anne’s rapidly unravelling existence, her grief, guilt and fears, and explores a society that is quick to judge Anne guilty until proven innocent. Family relationships are strained and support and friendships are found in the unlikeliest of places. Not a fast-paced novel by any means, The Light on the Water is a simmering and assured meditation on the darker undercurrents of human behaviour, family and society. Lorenzo is a skilled literary writer who will appeal to readers who enjoy writers such as Joan London and Helen Garner. Her first novel The Rooms in My Mother’s House (1996) was shortlisted for the Vogel Prize.

Deborah Crabtree is a Melbourne-based writer and bookseller

 

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