Signs of Damage (Diana Reid, Ultimo)

Diana Reid’s third book is an engrossing, meticulously crafted drama that explores memory, trauma, repression and self-preservation, examining how these themes intersect, overlap, are misinterpreted or deliberately distorted to devastating consequences. Signs of Damage opens in 2024 with a fatal fall from a balcony, though we do not know who died or whether it was the result of foul play. The novel gradually reveals the sinister undercurrents of the Kelly family’s idyllic 2008 summer holiday in France through multiple viewpoints and dual timelines. The central question is what happened while 13-year-old Cass, a friend of the youngest Kelly daughter, was trapped in a centuries-old icehouse on the French property, and whether her present-day seizures are conventionally epileptic or are rather a psychosomatic manifestation of repressed trauma. Was Cass assaulted in the icehouse, and if so, by whom? Reid (Love & Virtue, Seeing Other People) has a masterful narrative command, and here strikes just the right balance between wry humour and rigorous literary drama. Her prose is precise, rich with imagery and foreshadowing, yet never pretentious. Reid’s flair for free indirect style and astute social commentary, reminiscent of Zadie Smith and George Eliot, allows her to make even the most flawed characters both compelling and compassionate. Signs of Damage is an intelligent yet accessible novel that will appeal to fans of both literary fiction and the mystery and thriller genres.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Charlotte Callander is a freelance writer and an educator at Melbourne Museum. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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