The Labyrinth: Winner of the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award

(Paperback)

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Description

Amanda Lohrey's Miles Franklin Award-winning novel of grief and solace in a small coastal community is now available in a smaller, more affordable format 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 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.

Reviews

Hypnotic and beautiful, The Labyrinth forces us to reckon with how our deepest bonds can inflict the most pain. Amid this coil of darkness, however, is the novels unfailing light: that hope and redemption are always found in art and creation. * Rebecca Starford *
The Labyrinth is Amanda Lohreys wisest and most intimate novel yetluminous, full of sharp-edged beauty and illuminating questions about how we should live our lives. It asks, most simply, how to keep going in the wake of a disaster that has no neat ending. This is a novel in which nothing is out of placeevery word and image resonates. * Julieanne Lamond *
Lohreys writing is excellent, and she mixes pastoral and gothic tropes beautifully. * Books+Publishing *
A beautiful, brutal book that I experienced as both earthy and unearthly. I loved it. * Laura McPhee-Browne *
Not a book to be analysed but a book to experience. It is compelling, visceral and deeply movingIt is delicate yet strong. Painful yet regenerative. * Fiona Place *
Iridescent...The Labyrinth is a nuanced and engrossing novel of bread and bones broken, the trace and rack of violence, and threads that lead the way out of exile.' * Saturday Paper *
Lohreys writing ensures we invest in and understand a mothers intense need for forgivenessI do believe that this novel is her very best. It is perfectly balanced and completely masterful. Fans of Alice Munro and Anne Tyler will rejoice in this kind of Australian story. * Readings *
An unsteadying read of strength, love and brutality that is provocatively inconclusive in its closing. Poetic and enormous. * Better Read Than Dead *
'Amanda Lohrey might be described as a writers writer: proficient in short and long form fiction and a veteran of the essay. Her writing is the literature of ideas. Her new novel, The Labyrinth, uses the idea of the labyrinth as its key organising principle, containing echoes and repetitions throughout to weave together a haunting narrative about loss and self-understandingLohreys descriptions are elegant and transfixingThere is something dreamlike about the novel. * Australian *
Left me with a sense of clean, clear joyfulness and creativityits a book of ideas, but [Lohrey] delivers in terms of offering revelations and some sort of hope through making things * RN Bookshelf *
BeautifulQuite possibly my favourite LohreyOne cant help but think of We Need to Talk About Kevinbut this is far more subtle and intimate. * Jaclyn Crupi *
'The Labyrinth is an impressive addition to Lohreys body of fiction, which always has philosophical foundations for its warmly human stories. Here the characters and ideas are deftly integrated into a short novel of deep wisdom about nature and art, men and women, motherhood and home...Elegant sentences move with the mindful pace of footsteps on a pathway.' * SMH/Age *
This is a book about being a parent, building or makingas therapy, and the inability to be truly alone in todays societyThe pace of the book reflects the contemplative nature of walking a labyrinth, both the inner one and the physical one that mirrors it. * Herald Sun *
A deeply meditative book[Amanda Lohreys] writing here is beautifully layered, rich in imagery and meaning, without ever being laboured...The Labyrinth offers a pull towards the unknown and a comfort in solitude. It is a sharply tuned novel, a sprawling narrative that resists rigid expectations, instead allowing those who inhabit the pages to surrender themselves to the mode of reversible destiny that it is constructed around.' * Guardian *
HauntingA meditation on fundamental patterns in nature and in familial relations[with a] narrative so bracinglike salt spray stinging your facethat one is borne forward inexorablyTaut, deftly editedThe novels story is stark, unflinchinggothic without contrivanceSummary does scant justice to the subtlety and power of Lohreys writingEvery page of this densely populated novel, with its incised landscape, shimmers. * Australian Book Review *
Amandas prose is low-key, unsentimental, economical. The tale unfolds without fanfare but with deft strokes that have the power of leaving some things unsaidexcellent reading for the days when you are shut at home with not enough to do. * Warragul and Drouin Gazette *
This quietly cerebral, emotional and atmospheric story is a gift of hope at a time when so many are struggling with seemingly insurmountable challenges. * Good Reading *
[Lohreys] storytelling is masterful: honed to pleasing plainness and assured in its measured tempo, her novels would take multiple readings to unpick her craft, which is deft to the point of invisibility at times. * Mercury *
'In this fine, sensory work Amanda Lohrey spirals imagination, ideas and humanity into a refuge. * Joy Lawn, Paperbark Words *
Lohreys writing is typically supple and luminous, her spare narrative counterpointed with vivid, detailed, often enigmatic dreams. By the endthe reader [is ready] to go back and relish again at leisure this authors precise and shining prose. * Advertiser *
'The release of a new Amanda Lohrey novel is always a moment to look forward to and The Labyrinth (Text) looks set to be one of her most successful yet mystical, earthed and beautifully told. * James Boyce, Age *
Fluid, dream-likeLohreys novel is beautifully written and compellingly personal. * Otago Daily Times *
'My novel of the year, full stopA story told without a syllable of excess sentiment or false feeling, yet which sails full square into the mystic. * Geordie Williamson, Australian *
'Lohrey brings all her skill to this compelling and contemplative novel, which will linger in your mind long after you read the final page. * Claire Nichols, ABC RN *
A fine novelistHer expertise, observant eye and ear, and sense of story are fully present. * Conversation *

Author Bio

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.