Little Plum

(Paperback)

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Description

Beautifully capturing the emotional complexity of impending motherhood, Little Plum is a rich and vital story from a rising star in Australian fiction On the cusp of thirty, Coral learns that a thing is growing inside her body. It is not necessarily a complete disaster, she tells herself. I'm okay, she tells herself. Soon the thing inside her is the size of a plum. 'Little Plum,' she says, 'Little Plum, I love you.' And she wants to love it, the little plum. It's just that she can't yet think of it as what it is becoming- a baby, and not just a fruity morsel. Coral is tapping and shrugging more than usual. She is trying to stop the creature in her head from taking hold. Coral might not be okay-or she might be seeing more clearly than anyone. Bold, dark and sensuous, Little Plum is the stunning follow-up to the award-winning debut Cherry Beach. With skill and sensitivity, Laura McPhee-Browne takes us inside the mind of an expectant mother.

Reviews

I didnt so much read Little Plum as breathe it. Laura McPhee-Browne has an extraordinary ability to summon the ordinary and fill it with such significance and beauty that one has no choice but to inhabit her novels. At once exquisite and unsettling, dark and tender, Little Plum is a triumph. * Hannah Kent *
Reading McPhee-Browne feels like listening to your own heartbeat. * Amanda Lohrey *
Little Plum draws us so lightly into the depths that we dont know how far its taken us until we cant go back. With dark insight and masterly grace, Laura McPhee-Browne reminds us that our bodies can know things we dont, that experience can save or afflict us, and that possession can invest us with beautiful and terrible things. * Ronnie Scott *
An embodied and magical novelso dark and earthy, colourful and frightening. * Ellena Savage *
A poetic and razor-sharp portrait of motherhood. * Harpers Bazaar *
[Laura McPhee-Browne] does especially well [in portraying] the coexistence ofparental love with an ongoing, often frightening battle with mental illness. It is depicted not as something to fix but something to understand and live with. * Saturday Paper *
Laura McPhee-Brownes exquisite, velvety writing creeps up on you unexpectedlyLittle Plum is a deeply intimate insight into the mind of a woman who feels alone and scared. * Readings *
Little Plum is easily readable, quickly immersive, and offers a vibrant character in Coral. McPhee-Browne has deftly articulated the unique experience of becoming a parent and the vulnerability of motherhoodall without shying away from its devils. * Guardian Australia *
Crisp [and] cleanwith both clear descriptions and surprising use of imageryVivid. * ABC Radio National Bookshelf *
A book on motherhood in all its guisesBeautiful. * 3RRR Literari Glitterati *
[Little Plum] has a rare physicality to it that one cant help but inhabitEarthy like stones and juicy as fruit, McPhee-Brownes hypnotic prose is visceral, intimate and deliciousLittle Plum is a tasty literary treat. * ArtsHub *
Intricate, detailed writing[and] compassionate storytellingA tender study of a woman whose heart and mind are desperately trying to be in the right place. -- Anna Spargo-Ryan * Big Issue *
[Laura McPhee-Browne] writes with considerable sensitivity[Little Plum] is an empathetic, vividly realised novel. * West Australian *
Little Plum evokes with a jewel-like clarity and luminescence the process of nurturing a new life within your body and finding your consciousness transformed by itGreat skill[McPhee-Browne] never lets us forget that pregnancy is an inside-out transformation. * Age *
McPhee-Browne, as ever, writes with distinction. * Australian *
Equal parts witty and poignantuniquewith fresh and unsettling insights. * Danielle Raffaele, RTRFM Bunch of Books *

Author Bio

Laura McPhee-Browne is a writer and social worker living in Melbourne, on Wurundjeri land. Her short stories have been published widely in Australia. Cherry Beach (2020), her first novel, won a NSW Premier's Literary Award.