In Higher Education, debut author Kira McPherson introduces Sam, a young woman progressing hesitantly through five years of her law degree.

In an early vignette from primary school, Sam’s teacher takes her aside to express sympathy after her father’s death. Mrs. McMillan also tells her, ‘You can make it easy for people to like you. Or you can make it hard.’ During Sam’s years at university her self-consciousness and inability to fit in make the latter option inevitable.

The next sections are divided into the academic years of Sam’s degree. In most of first year, she lives in a chaotic environment with her mother, an explosive stepfather and two brothers. Her commute is long. She makes a few friends at university, but doesn’t reveal anything about her home life or her father’s death. When her friend Trish asks her to share a house, she realises the house and car belong to Trish’s father. She agrees to live there after determining that her mother will not lose her government-funded housing if Sam moves out.

When her literature teacher, Anselm, throws an end of year party, Sam meets his wife, Julia. Julia is a lawyer, and Sam asks to be mentored by her. Julia is self-centered; always late and preoccupied. Yet Sam becomes transfixed by her, and the lifestyle that Julia and Anselm lead. Increasingly, Sam spends more time with them.

A quote late in the book summarises Sam’s status as an outsider: ‘She is forever standing outside a closeness that belongs to someone else’. Sam has sexual experiences, but struggles with her sexuality and the intimacy needed in a relationship.

Despite wanting to know more about Sam’s high school experience and her choice to study law, I believe Higher Education makes important commentary on class and gender in tertiary institutions.