Cure (Katherine Brabon, Ultimo)

Katherine Brabon’s Cure is a natural extension and companion to her novel Body Friend; both are introspective literary works centred on women living with autoimmune diseases – conditions Brabon herself experiences. Thea, a 16-year-old Melburnian, is exploring her family roots and ‘inherited’ illness in the Lake Como region with her mother, Vera. While in Italy, Thea tries to overcome her vulnerability and pain and act with more confidence and vitality. Mirroring her mother’s youthful rite of passage, she encounters 17-year-old Santo. Vera’s experiences form a secondary narrative. She was diagnosed with the same condition at age 16 and is now consumed by an online quest for cures. She constantly navigates the tension between protecting Thea and giving her freedom. The family speak vaguely about taking Thea to a ‘healer’. This elusive pilgrimage and hoped-for miracle adds to the novel’s dreamy atmosphere, which drifts through misty reflections, silhouettes, photographs and the ever-changing lake with its ‘breath [that] enters the room again and again’. Themes of doppelgangers and duality are central to both Body Friend and Cure. Vera communicates with another woman who shares her name and disease. Meanwhile, Thea’s story unfolds through both her own voice and an omniscient narrator who dispassionately observes and comments on her actions in italics. Brabon explores the search for healing – physical, emotional and generational – with exquisite finesse and sophistication. Cure exceeds the excellent Body Friend and will be a treat for readers of Gail Jones’ The Death of Noah Glass and Delia Falconer’s The Service of Clouds.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Joy Lawn has worked for independent bookshops and blogs at Paperbark Words. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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