What I Loved - A loving, faithful animal

I was so sure I'd love this book that I was already promoting it pre-release. Having devoured Josephine Rowe's short stories in 'Tarcutta Wake' and 'How A Moth Becomes a Boat', I was confident that her debut novel, 'A loving, faithful animal,' would be a must have that would end up on one of my Favourite Book shelves.

And I was right.

This is one of those books that I didn't stop to think about too much - partly because I read it in just a couple of sittings and partly because it's compelling, not in a frantic way, but more like I wanted to listen to it. Like when you catch up with a friend you haven't seen for a while and things have happened to them, not necessarily all bad but certainly big, and you want them to have the space to talk without being interrupted - would you like another cuppa or do you feel like a glass of wine is absolutely appropriate, to remind them that you're there, but otherwise it's their time. That's how I felt reading this book, and then after I'd finished I did more reflecting.

Rowe writes from five different points of view and captures each family member's voice with distinctive tones and details as they confron set through they struggle with confront another  Christmas/New Year event.

I love that we have these young writers setting work in tough, rural environments and sharing very Australian stories from their overseas locations - Rowe is currently a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University, and while living in London I met Evie Wyld, whose novels have won major awards here, in the UK and in the US.

Also enjoying local and international attention is Italian-born, Melbourne-based Mark Brandi, who draws on his experiences growing up in a remote country Victorian pub, and another inner-city Melbourne writer whose rural upbringing is a major influence on her work is Else Fitzgerald, who also happened to introduce me to Josephine Rowe's work.

It's a logophile's community with personal links for me - in 2013 I went to a reading at Evie Wyld's south London bookshop (that ended in quite a late night at the pub over the road) and in Melbourne I've met with Else and Mark as part of my Words Out series, as well as Angela Meyer who, along with Chris Flynn, gets a "thank you for being so sturdy and transpacific in your friendship," from Rowe.

Such talented writers whose skills, commitment and attention to detail are creating important, powerful stories that should reach readers far and wide.

Links to Words Out: Mark Brandi, Else Fitzgerald and Angela Meyer