Josephine Rowe – författare

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 MILES FRANKLIN PRIZEA dazzling novel about the mysterious body of a child saint and the lives it touches across time.He has no notion of how to care for a saint. Even a small one. Does not even believe . . . Still. Catholic or not. You don’t turn away a saint.Little World opens with the body of a child saint stranded in the Australian desert. Her name is unknown, as is the story of her life and the status of her canonisation. She arrives in a box made of canoe timber, and Orrin Bird is dressed in his best clothes to receive her.As the novel sweeps across time and place, from the 1950s to the present day, we encounter the lives the saint touches: from the retired engineer who unwittingly becomes her custodian, to a woman driving across the Nullarbor Plain in the mid-1970s with a pair of young lovers, and ending in contemporary Victoria.A haunting reflection on violence and the interdependency of all things, Little World is a dazzling feat by one of Australia’s finest writers.'Little World holds tenderness, rage, faith and grace, and it does so in language—so precise, so exacting—it seems, at once, to cut through and join together the complexities of our relations. Each new work from Josephine Rowe is a revelation.' Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing'[Little World is] the kind of concise, precisely sketched novel that you can read in one sitting, coming away with a sense of having been briefly but profoundly transported... [an] elevating, spiritual dance in language.' The Washington Post‘Affecting, sensual, otherworldly... [Little World] tenderly explores what small things can make a life sacred.’ The New York Times

Across Farmer's works, there has always been an attraction to those beings who occupy two realms ... Once one has lived elsewhere, lived differently, it doesn't matter whether she stays to forge a new life or turns back towards the old, or moves on once again; there will always be the shadow, the after-image, of the life not lived.Beverley Farmer s writing reflects on restlessness, desire and homecoming. In this brilliantly acute essay, fellow novelist and short-story writer Josephine Rowe finds a kindred spirit and argues for a celebration and reclamation of this unique Australian author. In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and fascinated them. Provocative and well-written, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published by Black Inc. in association with the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.

A haunting and vivid novel which excavates an Australia rarely seen in literature.New Year''s Eve, 1990, small-town Australia. The mysterious death of the family dog pushes Jack, a Vietnam veteran suffering from severe PTSD, into one of his periodic vanishing acts. His eccentric brother Les remains next door, a gentle fixer-upper, whose loyalties are increasingly torn between Jack and his wife Evelyn. This time, Evelyn lets Jack stay gone. She is rapidly disappearing herself, lost in recollections of a vibrant youth as her eldest daughter Lani seems intent on misspending her own. And at the heart of it all is Lani''s little sister Ru, who sees everything and yet is overlooked. A Loving, Faithful Animal is an unforgettable interrogation of ruins, redemption and reasons why.

A haunting and vivid novel which excavates an Australia rarely seen in literature.New Year's Eve, 1990, small-town Australia. The mysterious death of the family dog pushes Jack, a Vietnam veteran suffering from severe PTSD, into one of his periodic vanishing acts. His eccentric brother Les remains next door, a gentle fixer-upper, whose loyalties are increasingly torn between Jack and his wife Evelyn. This time, Evelyn lets Jack stay gone. She is rapidly disappearing herself, lost in recollections of a vibrant youth as her eldest daughter Lani seems intent on misspending her own. And at the heart of it all is Lani's little sister Ru, who sees everything and yet is overlooked.A Loving, Faithful Animal is an unforgettable interrogation of ruins, redemption and reasons why.

Eine abgelegene Kleinstadt im Südwesten Australiens, Anfang der Neunzigerjahre. Jack Burroughs hat den Krieg, an dem er vor mehr als zwanzig Jahren teilgenommen hat, nie überwunden. Als sein geliebter Hund eines Nachts von einem wilden Tier buchstäblich in Stücke gerissen wird, verliert er endgültig die Kontrolle über sein verpfuschtes Leben. Vor Weihnachten verschwindet er spurlos – genau wie früher schon, nur fürchtet seine Tochter Ruby, dass es diesmal endgültig ist. Schließlich funktioniert die Familie schon lange nicht mehr. Evelyn, Jacks Frau, fühlt sich um das bessere Leben betrogen, das sie eigentlich hätte leben sollen. Früher hat sie ihre ältere Tochter Lani losgeschickt, wenn Jack sich davongemacht hatte, weil er die Schreie der Vergangenheit nicht mehr aushalten konnte. Heute verkauft Lani auf Partys die Beruhigungstabletten ihres Vaters und ist vor allem darauf aus, in Schwierigkeiten zu geraten …Jede unglückliche Familie ist auf ihre eigene Weise unglücklich, aber nicht immer ist das Schicksal einer Familie unausweichlich. Josephine Rowes eindringlich erzählter Roman handelt von Liebe und Verlust, von enttäuschten Träumen und dem fehlenden Mut, diese zu überwinden. Ein schmaler Roman mit großem Resonanzraum.