Paperback: Erica Marsden’s son, an artist, has been imprisoned for homicidal negligence. In a state of grief, Erica cuts off all ties to family and friends, and retreats to a quiet hamlet on the south-east coast near the prison where he is serving his sentence.
There, in a rundown shack, she obsesses over creating a labyrinth by the ocean. To build it - to find a way out of her quandary - Erica will need the help of strangers. And that will require her to trust, and to reckon with her past.
The Labyrinth (2020) is a hypnotic story of guilt and denial, of the fraught relationship between parents and children, that is also a meditation on how art can both be ruthlessly destructive and restore sanity. It shows Amanda Lohrey to be at the peak of her powers.
The Labyrinth won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2021 and was longlisted for the ALS Gold Medal in 2021.
About the author: Amanda Lohrey lives in Tasmania and writes fiction and non-fiction. She has taught Politics at the University of Tasmania and Writing and Textual Studies at the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Queensland. Amanda is a regular contributor to the Monthly magazine and is a former Senior Fellow of the Literature Board of the Australia Council. In November 2012, she received the Patrick White Award for literature.
Her books include Reading Madame Bovary (winner of two Queensland Literary Awards), Vertigo, Camille's Bread (winner of the ALS Gold Medal and a Victorian Premier's Literary Award) and The Morality of Gentlemen.
Rating: 5/5
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