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BOOKS LOVE LETTER TO LOLA By Carmel Bird Spineless Wonders 223pp, $24.99; THE HEART IS A STAR By Megan Rogers Fourth Estate 291pp, $32.99 FEAST By Emily O‘Grady Allen & Unwin 291pp, $32.99 Superstitious people say that bad things come in threes. But I can testify that good things can also come in threes. An excellent example is this trio of spine-tingling, quirky, fictions, all by women.
I’m referring to Love Letter to Lola, The Heart is a Star, and Feast. The first is a collection of interconnected short stories by veteran author Carmel Bird; the second is an engrossing first novel by Megan Rogers, while the third is a second book from Brisbane-based author, Emily O’Grady.
In 2018, O’Grady’s debut novel, The Yellow House, which is one of my recent favourites, won The Australian/Vogel’s Award and was short-listed for the 2019 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction.
Coincidentally, Grady’s gripping new novel, Feast, features three women. They happen to be connected by blood. But, at least on the surface, they appear to be quite different.
The first woman is Alison, a no longer working actor who lives a somewhat debauched existence in a mansion in the Scottish Highlands with Patrick, a musician well past his prime.
The second is Neve, Patrick’s eccentric daughter and Alison’s stepdaughter, who has returned from Australia for her 18th birthday.
The third is Shannon, Neve’s mother, who has also come to Scotland from Down Under to take part in the weekend celebrations.
At first glance, Neve’s actual mum seems to be her antithesis. But as we discover, Shannon’s loving demeanour conceals an extremely unsettling agenda which has the capacity to ruin Patrick’s life and shatter the facade of an increasingly dysfunctional family.
O’Grady’s compelling narrative soon becomes complicated as readers are drawn...