Common Places (Gillian Hagenus, University of Queensland Press)

Gillian Hagenus’s short story collection Common Places is a journey through the shadowy ruthlessness of Australian suburbia, where ghosts haunt the living in the brutal Australian landscape.

The stories travel between the familiar and the absurd, exploring the darkness that can linger beneath the surface of modern suburban life. Ghosts are forced to spend eternity working as employees at a Westfield Myer. Crows and magpies viciously attack children on the school playground. Haunting is the through line – characters are haunted by ghosts, their past actions, their dreams and other people.

The collection opens with “Early Summer”, a sharp and dynamic story in which teenage girls take out their jealousy on each other in the pool on a hot summer’s day. Another standout from the collection is “Oh”, where a presence helps two women to administer abortions in secret. The prose style creates a sense of desperation that powerfully addresses the issue of access to medical care for young women in Australia.

Each story is set against the hostility of the natural environment, where characters are threatened by oppressive summer heat, brutal storms, bushfires and unpredictable wildlife. Altogether, the collection blends its more surreal elements with emotionally resonant storytelling in a style that is both distinctive and original.

Common Places will appeal to readers of Australian gothic works such as Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock and Kathleen Jennings’s Flyaway.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Gabby Spina is an emerging writer and bookseller based in Meanjin. 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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