Day 2: The Strays by Emily Bitto
On the second day of Christmas my bookish baby sent to me…
The Strays by Emily Bitto!
2015 Stella Prize-winner, The Strays, is an engrossing story of ambition, sacrifice and compromised loyalties from an exciting new talent.
Is this the perfect Christmas gift for you?
What the Stella Prize judges said:
“Lily is an only child, and when she befriends the exotic Eva – daughter of artists and ‘old money’ – at school, it’s the beginning of the kind of love affair that solitary children often have with large exuberant families. But this is bohemian Melbourne in the 1930s, and in many ways it’s not a good place for any child to be. As the girls grow up their world gets darker and more complex, eventually imploding into scandal.
“While it’s partly inspired by the real-life 1930s artists’ colony at Heide in Melbourne, this novel’s characters and plot are wholly fictional and the result is a satisfyingly cohesive vision and story. With its reflective tone, rhythmic style, and vivid scenes, Bitto’s novel illuminates the history of a particular time, place and way of living, but it also draws out the more abstract themes, common to all times and places, of friendship, memory, ambition, and family life.”
The blurb:
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.
What the critics said:
‘[T]reating this novel as an 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… Whatever may have inspired The Strays, the book is astute in the way it tells its story; it doesn’t need to be supported by anything outside itself.’ – Michael McGirr, Sydney Morning Herald
‘Bitto has created an elegantly formed, resonant novel, melding vivid images, an ear for dialogue, and a well-measured narrative pace with the current of humour that always runs through human tragedy. With delicacy and restraint, The Strays explores rich terrain – the violence and redemption of art, the ever-presence of personal history, and the interrogation of childhood selves by adult selves in search of understanding and absolution.’ – Ruby Todd, TEXT Journal
‘Poetic, richly visual and faultlessly judged in terms of pace, character and atmosphere, this is writing that has the rich patina of an enduring classic.’ – Caroline Baum, Booktopia
Further reading:
- Caroline Baum interviews Emily for the Sydney Morning Herald
- Kristina Olsson interviews Emily for Readings
- Working With Words: Emily Bitto – The Wheeler Centre
And finally…
Click below to see Emily read from The Strays during the Stella longlist readings event at the Digital Writers’ Festival:
