The Other Side of the World

Description

'profoundly moving ...a literary tour de force' - Australian Women's Weekly 'the precision and flair of the writing is breathtaking' - Weekend Australian 'an insightful, exquisitely observed novel' - The Guardian CAMBRIDGE, 1963 Charlotte is struggling. With motherhood, with the changes marriage and parenthood bring, with losing the time and the energy to paint. Her husband, Henry, wants things to be as they were and can't face the thought of another English winter. A brochure slipped through the letterbox gives him the answer: 'Australia brings out the best in you.' Before she has a chance to realise what it will mean, Charlotte is travelling to the other side of the world. Arriving in Perth, the southern sun shines a harsh light and slowly reveals that this new life is not the answer either was hoping for. Charlotte is left wondering if there is anywhere she belongs and how far she'll go to find her way home ...A novel of astonishing grace and devastating emotional power that will make your heart ache. If you loved The Hours or The Hand that First Held Mine, you will love The Other Side of the World.

The recent winner of the 2015 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Stephanie Bishop's first novel was THE SINGING, for which she was named one of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD's Best Young Australian Novelists. THE SINGING was also highly commended for the Kathleen Mitchell Award. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD is her second novel, and as well as winning the Readings Prize, it was shortlisted for the 2014 Australian/Vogel's Literary Award under the title DREAM ENGLAND. This book also saw Stephanie recently longlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize, shortlisted in the Victorian Premiers Literary Awards and shortlisted in the Indie Book Awards Best Fiction for 2015. Stephanie's fiction and poetry have appeared in SOUTHERLY, OVERLAND and ISLAND and she is a frequent contributor to THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, THE AUSTRALIAN, THE SYDNEY REVIEW OF BOOKS, THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW and the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. She is a recipient of an Australia Council New Work Grant, an Asialink Fellowship, an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship, a Varuna Mentorship Fellowship and Varuna Residency Fellowship. She holds a PhD from Cambridge and is currently a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of New South Wales. Stephanie is currently at work on two new projects - a third novel and a collection of essays. Stephanie lives in Sydney.

The story of Charlotte and Henry - the melancholy beauty of its prose and the sharpness of its insights into nostalgia and belonging - has stayed with me for weeks now. - Geordie Williamson the precision and flair of the writing is breathtaking - Weekend Australian The Other Side of the World shows she is a talent to watch. - Sydney Morning Herald Assured, evocative, moving - without question one of the finest Australian novels of 2015. - Martin Shaw an unputdownable, evocative tale of nostalgia, belonging and motherhood delivered with superb poetic grace. - Canberra Weekly a haunting beauty reminiscent of the writings of Emily Bronte and Virginia Woolfe - Readings