The Strays

Author: Emily Bitto

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $29.99 AUD
  • : 9781922213211
  • : Affirm Press
  • : Affirm Press
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  • : 0.314
  • : May 2014
  • : 21.00 cmmm X 13.60 cmmm X 2.30 cmmm
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  • : 29.99
  • : May 2014
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • :
  • : Emily Bitto
  • : 2015 Stella Prize
  • : Paperback
  • :
  • :
  • : en
  • : 823/.92
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Barcode 9781922213211
9781922213211

Description

The winner of the 2015 Stella Prize has been reformatted in a gorgeous hardback with a jacket cover, just in time for Christmas.

On her first day at a new school, Lily befriends one of the daughters of infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham. He and his wife are trying to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930s Australia by inviting other like-minded artists to live and work at their family home. Lily becomes infatuated with this wild, makeshift family and longs to truly be a part of it.

As the years pass, Lily observes the way the lives of these artists come to reflect the same themes as their art: Faustian bargains and spectacular falls from grace. Yet it's not Evan, but his own daughters, who pay the price for his radicalism.

The Strays is an engrossing story of ambition, sacrifice and compromised loyalties from an exciting new talent.

Awards

Winner of Stella Prize 2015.

Reviews

'Treating this novel as a historical fiction risks missing some of its breadth of insight. The Strays is an eloquent portrayal of the damage caused by self-absorption as well as a moving study of isolation.' -The Saturday Age. 'You could lift out any sentence in The Strays and admire the sheer artistry of its melody and composition. What's especially wonderful about Bitto's literary novel is the s

Author description

Emily Bitto lives in Melbourne. She has a Masters in literary studies and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Melbourne, where she is also a sessional teacher and supervisor in the creative writing program. Her writing has appeared in various publications, including Meanjin, Heat, Harvest, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Literary Review. The manuscript of her debut novel, The Strays, was shortlisted for the 2013 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.