Never Look Desperate: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Never Look Desperate is Sedaris meets Fleabag, a tragicomedy romance set in Melbourne 2023. It features cremation bling, pineapple underwear, grief and vaccinated cruise ships. The central characters Bernard, Goldie and Minh are everything Ted Talks tell you not to be.

The story tackles the absurdity of despair in a recovering world, the liberation from isolation and the wild frontier of middle-aged Tinder.

'Matthewss voice is funny and wry and heartbreakingly honest. She has empathy for everyoneeven those of us who, like Bernard, are a little bit hopeless but not entirely without hope...' Toni Jordan, author of Addition, Nine Days, Fall Girl

'Dense, wry, glorious and tragicfigures who lodge deep in the heartthe unravelling and humiliation of being humanwith humour, complexity and wit. There are precarious moments evoked in the wider cultural backdrop to this storythe post-viral anxiety runs like a vein beneath the characters every thought. This work feels timely and tender.' Ilka Tampke, author of Skin and Songwoman

'I was hooked. Rachels characters are always exquisitely crafted, yet utterly real.' Di Websdale-Morrisey, On A Wing and a Prayer

'Rachel Matthews is an important Australian voice. Her novel Siren tackled some of the most difficult territory in white Australian culture with courage, insight and pathos. She brings the same quality of understanding of human thought and impulse to this new work, Never Look Desperate, and layers into it a truly hilarious sensibility. Matthews writes with unflinching honesty tempered by humour and a wise compassion. Touching, funny and sexy, Never Look Desperate is transgressive but hugely readable ' Clare Strahan, Cracked and The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge