Thanks for Having Me is a novel told in interlinked stories, and even though you might think, ‘I don’t like short stories,’ it’s worth considering that some of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novels – Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – are created through a series of stories. Even our own Tim Winton favoured the form in The Turning.

Emma Darragh’s debut follows three women from the same working-class community in Wollongong. Maryanne, a mother in the 1970s, tries to be everything for her two daughters and husband. She works as a nurse, makes lunches for the kids, plus dinner when she gets home. She also tends to the needs of her own parents and suffers in the wake of a family tragedy. But when her two daughters are adolescents in the 1990s, she barely recognises her life, and leaves.

Vivian also finds herself in a situation where her family suddenly feels unrecognisable. As a result, she is furious and copes using alcohol and sex. She works at a string of casual jobs in between hangovers. At 23, Vivian is partnered and pregnant; she’s hoping motherhood will give her some direction. But the repetition of sleepless nights and painful breastfeeding disheartens her. Increasingly distant from her husband, she leaves when her daughter is primary school aged.

This novel is full of complex and interesting women. Despite themes of family trauma, Darragh’s writing and characters can be extremely funny, and the span of the book means that a broad range of readers will relate to the characters and timelines. The stories vary in length, and each reveals some part of the larger picture; part of the joy is piecing it all together. Central to that experience is the skill of the author in depicting the highs and lows of relationships. Memorably, in the present, Evie, a teenager, but possibly the most self-aware character, muses, ‘What if there was a Gumtree for families? Or a Buy Swap Sell?’

This novel is for readers who enjoy writers who make the personal enjoyably political. It’s a wonderful, thought-provoking read.