The Inland Sea
By Madeleine Watts
Harry Hartog's review
“Humans cast into a prolonged state of emergency will tend towards more subtle physiological changes. Blood volume will increase, potassium will shed itself in the body’s excretions, the immune system will stand down its battalions, and the brain will unwind. The mind doesn’t distort reality necessarily, but it’s memory will suffer. Because the more a stressful memory is recalled, the less accurate, and the more prone one’s brain may be to puncture holes in the narrative that we have convinced ourselves might freeze the melting snowcaps of our memories.” Imagine you're in Sydney, stuck in that pocket of time between the orange-tinted skies and a pandemic. It's Summer and you're looking for a beach read. A book that balances ease and wit, goes deep but light enough for you to be hopeful. This is what you find. - Ben, Marketing
Description
In the early 19th century, British explorer John Oxley traversed the then-unknown wilderness of central Australia in search of water. Oxley never found it, but he never ceased to believe it was out there. The myth of the inland sea was taken up by other men, and over the years search parties walked out into the desert, dying as they tried to find it.
Two centuries later, his great-great-great-great granddaughter (and our narrator) spends a final year in Sydney reeling from her own self-destructive obsessions. She's working part-time as an emergency dispatch operator, drinking heavily, sleeping with strangers, wandering Sydney's streets late at night, and navigating an affair with an ex-lover. Reckless and adrift, she prepares to leave.
Written with down-to-earth lucidity and ethereal breeziness, this is an unforgettable debut about coming of age in a world that seems increasingly hostile. Watts explores feminine fear, apathy and danger, building to a tightly controlled bushfire of ecological and personal crisis.
- ISBN:
- 9781911590354
- Format:
- Paperback / softback
- Pages:
- 256
- Published:
- Publisher:
- Pushkin Press
- Imprint:
- ONE
- Weight:
- 278 g