A Short History of Richard Kline – Amanda Lohrey’s new novel

I will be talking with acclaimed Australian novelist Amanda Lohrey at Gleebooks on March 25 about her wonderful new novel A Short History of Richard Kline.

 

“I woke with a gasp. And lay in the dark, open-mouthed, holding my breath. That feeling . . . that feeling was indescribable. For a moment I had felt as if I were falling . . . falling into bliss.”

All his life, Richard Kline has been haunted by a sense that something is lacking. He envies the ease with which others slip into contented suburban life or the pursuit of wealth. As he moves into middle age, Richard grows angry, cynical, depressed.

But then a strange event, a profound epiphany, awakens him to a different way of life.

Reading Madame Bovary scoops the pool

I’m very excited that Amanda Lohrey’s fine collection of short stories, Reading Madame Bovary, has won the Fiction Book Award and Australian Short Story Collection Award in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. It’s so heartening to see good work recognised. Congratulations, Amanda!