A Room Made of Leaves
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 | |
| Author | Kate Grenville |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary novel |
| Publisher | Text Publishing |
Publication date | 2 July 2020 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 352 pp. |
| Awards | 2021 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, winner |
| ISBN | 9781922330024 |
A Room Made of Leaves is a 2020 novel by the Australian author Kate Grenville, originally published by Text Publishing.[1]
It was the winner of the 2021 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for Fiction.[2]
This novel tells the story of Elizabeth Macarthur, wife of John Macarthur, a wealthy and corrupt early pioneer of Australia's wool industry. Genville uses the trope of imagining she has found a long lost memoir of Elizabeth's, upon which she bases her book.
Critical reception
Writing in The Guardian Kirsten Tranter called the novel a "stunning literary achievement", and went on to note: "Most striking is the way Grenville makes images startlingly fresh that ought to be worn out with use. She turns inside-out the conventional emblem of birdsong as heartfelt expression, making it expressive only of tragic limitation: as a newly married, unhappy wife, Elizabeth hears a bird that sings 'a lovely song' at dawn."[3]
In Australian Book Review Don Anderson notes that Grenville hints at a possible adulterous relationship between Elizabeth Macarthur and botanist William Dawes, and wonders if it is "ethical for a novelist to do what Grenville does and impute such details into the private lives of historical personages?"[4]
Publication history
Awards
- 2021 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards – Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, winner[2]
- 2021 The Age Book of the Year – Fiction, shortlisted[6]
- 2021 Walter Scott Prize, shortlisted[7]