THE LABYRINTH - A Conversation with Amanda Lohrey & Karen Viggers
This event will be streamed via Zoom
Join Amanda Lohrey as she talks to Karen Viggers about her latest hypnotic story of guilt and denial and the fraught relationship between parents and children. A meditation on how art can both be ruthlessly destructive and restore sanity. A must-go event to hear one of Australia’s best authors at their best.
About the Book
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.
About the Speakers
Amanda Lohrey lives in Tasmania and writes fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of acclaimed novels such as The Morality of Gentlemen, Camille’s Bread, A Short History of Richard Kline, the novella Vertigo; as well as the award-winning short story collection Reading Madame Bovary. 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.
Karen Viggers is the author of four novels: The Stranding, The Lightkeeper’s Wife, The Grass Castle and the latest being The Orchardist’s Daughter. She writes contemporary realist fiction set in Australian landscapes, and her work explores connection with the bush, grief and loss, healing in nature, death, family, marriage and friendship.
Karen completed a PhD in wildlife health and is a wildlife veterinarian who has worked and travelled in many remote parts of Australia, from Antarctica to the Kimberley.
Her work has enjoyed great success in France, selling more than 800,000 copies to date. The Lightkeeper's Wife (La Memoire de embruns) was on the French National Bestseller list for more than 42 weeks and won the Les Petits Mots des Libraires Prix Litteraire and was short-listed for the Livre de Poche Readers Prize. Karen was a Bundanon Trust Artist-In-Residence in 2018, and 2019.