House of Sticks
Overview
Bonnie has given up her life as a musician to become a stay-at-home mum. She tells herself she has no regrets, but sometimes the isolation and the relentless demands of three small children threaten to swamp the love between Bonnie and her partner, Pete.
Then an old mate of Pete’s arrives. Doug is eccentric and intrusive, and his unsettling presence disrupts Bonnie’s world further. Yet as the cracks really start to show in the life Bonnie and Pete have built together, it seems the dangers might also come from within.
House of Sticks is a revealing portrait of contemporary family life, its joys and compromises, and how quickly things can unravel. It’s about trying to stay connected in our disconnected society; a story of identity and community, loyalty and love.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Paperback
- 6.02in x 9.21in
- 288 pages
- 9781921844270
- USD$17.95
- 29 August 2011
Categories
Awards
- Shortlisted for the 2012 NSW Premier's Literary Award UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- Winner of the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award prize for an Unpublished Manuscript
Praise
“Frew's House of Sticks may well be the standout debut Australian novel of 2011.”
—Patrick Allington, Adelaide Advertiser
“[A] fascinating debut novel.”
—AFR magazine
“My debut Australian novel of the year is Peggy Frew’s terrific domestic/rock’n’roll tale, House of Sticks.”
—Australian Book Review
“In House of Sticks, Frew creates a penetrating study of the impact of parenthood on a modern couple.”
—Big Issue
“[Frew] shows real talent in her debut novel, which is sophisticated and extremely well written…Readers of all ages will enjoy Frew's engaging prose.” FOUR STARS
—Bookseller & Publisher magazine
“House of Sticks affords an achingly lifelike glimpse into contemporary Australian domesticity. Frew's style is colloquial, photorealistic, and yet in its knife-edge focus it is able to slip into a darker, hidden world of psychological fissure and urban dread.”
—Canberra Times
“Excellently unnerving…A tantalisingly strong debut.”
—Melbourne Review
“[House of Sticks is] the kind of tune that hovers in the air well after the last note has sounded.”
—Sunday Age
“An accomplished and compassionate portrait of contemporary family life in all its delights and drudgery.”
—Sunday Tasmanian
“Her [Frew’s] prose is deceptively powerful…House of Sticks is vivid and contemporary on the page.”
—Weekend Australian
“Peggy Frew’s crystalline eye observes the shoreline of domestic life…Helen Garner meets Henry James in this suburban gothic, where innocence can turn to menace in a moment, love to resentment, and trust to prickling suspicion.”
—Kate Veitch
“Brilliant. Peggy Frew is a superb writer, and this is a remarkably confident debut.”
—Clare Bowditch
About the Author
Peggy Frew's debut novel, House of Sticks, won the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award. She is also a member of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Melbourne band Art of Fighting.
