Our featured writer for June: Zoë Norton Lodge
Every month, we do a spotlight feature on one Australian author on our blog and Zoë Norton Lodge is our chosen author for June. Her debut book, Almost Sincerely, is a laugh-out-loud collection of stories about her life and family in Annandale, Sydney.
What’s the book about?
The stories in Almost Sincerely – about neighbourhood warfare, wacky relatives, quashed dreams and facial disfigurement – are told with Norton Lodge’s characteristic comic verve and eye for absurdity and menace. Their highlights include Greek grandparents who have lived in mutual resentment for decades and beat each other up with colanders, children who dabble in amateur porn and are sent to school with cat-food sandwiches, ‘distressed’ furniture, rampaging eczema, flying babies and other suburban wonders.
Read an excerpt from the book here.
What did our reviewer say?
Our reviewer writes, “Reading these absurd tales of suburban mayhem in Annandale, Heartland of Sydney’s Inner West, I giggled on public transport, in the State Library, in line to pay at the supermarket. … These stories are told with genuine warmth and heart and are truly a joy to read.”
What’s the story behind the book?
We asked Norton Lodge about the story behind her book and she replied, “Taking the maxim ‘write what you know’ to uncomfortable extremes, I have literally just written about people I know and stuff that happened to me. In that sense it’s a very petty book.”
Read Norton Lodge’s full response here.
What are the last five books Norton Lodge has read?
Norton Lodge also shared with us the last five books she’s read. Her list included everything from The Magna Carta (“V. boring. 1 Star.”), to Australian author Patrick Lenton’s debut (“a gorgeous little experiment”).
