Lost River: Four albums

Simone Lazaroo

Lost River is the new novel from the award-winning author of The World Waiting To Be Made, The Travel Writer, The Australian Fiancé and Sustenance.

Balinese-born Ruth Joiner has always been an outsider. Orphaned in Bali and brought up by missionaries in the Australian desert, she is unsure of her heritage or her place in the world.

At seventeen she runs away to the small town of Lost River. There, as a fragile and trusting newcomer, she meets the enigmatic and carefree David Mathews, who gives her solace, friendship and a place to live. David disappears from her life but she is left with a home, a community and a gorgeous daughter who she names Dewi (‘goddess’ in Balinese).

It’s more than she could have hoped for, in a life short on opportunity. But as Ruth has to confront her own, all-too-early mortality it is her calm demeanour and care that makes us confident that Dewi’s future will be more positive.

Set in South-west Australia, Lost River is a life-affirming novel of dislocation and loss, and continues Simone Lazaroo’s interest in connections between Australian and South-east Asian lives.

Praise for Lost River:

This is a story about beginnings and endings, and seeing where light falls in the darkness of our lives… Lost River is a layered, deeply symbolic novel with a universal theme.

CLAIRE SCOBIE, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

 

The beauty of this novel lies in its portrayal of courage in adversity, the strength of the mother-and-daughter relationship and the gradual way the gentle courtship of David and Ruth is revealed.

ANZ LITLOVERS LITBLOG

Book details

PUBLICATION DATE: 2014
FORMAT: Paperback
EXTENT: 308 pages
SIZE: 203 x 133 mm
ISBN: 9781742585390
RIGHTS: Australia and New Zealand
CATEGORY: Fiction, Simone Lazaroo,