Bonnie, never domestically inclined, has given up her life as a musician to become a stay-at-home mother to three small children. She tells herself she has no regrets, but sometimes the isolation and endless drudgery are overwhelming, and threaten to swamp the love between Bonnie and her partner, Pete.
Bonnie, never domestically inclined, has given up her life as a musician to become a stay-at-home mother to three small children. She tells herself she has no regrets, but sometimes the isolation and endless drudgery are overwhelming, and threaten to swamp the love between Bonnie and her partner, Pete.
Bonnie, never domestically inclined, has given up her life as a musician to become a stay-at-home mother to three small children. She tells herself she has no regrets, but sometimes the isolation and endless drudgery are overwhelming, and threaten to swamp the love between Bonnie and her partner, Pete. Her almost-happy life is disrupted by the arrival of a character from her husband's past. Doug, an old mate of Pete's, is eccentric and intrusive, a lame duck who drifts in and then never seems to leave, bringing trouble with him. His unsettling presence provides the catalyst for this very suspenseful novel. When both Bonnie's and Pete's allegiances are tested, and the cracks really start to show in the life they've built together, it seems the dangers might not come only from outside but from within as well.
“"[Peggy Frew] shows real talent in her debut novel, which is sophisticated and extremely well written. . . . Readers of all ages will enjoy Frew's engaging prose. Four stars."”
"Frew's House of Sticks may well be the standout debut Australian novel of 2011." --Patrick Allington, Adelaide Advertiser
"[A] fascinating debut novel." --AFR magazine
"My debut Australian novel of the year is Peggy Frew's terrific domestic/rock'n'roll tale, House of Sticks." --Australian Book Review
"In House of Sticks, Frew creates a penetrating study of the impact of parenthood on a modern couple." --Big Issue
"[Frew] shows real talent in her debut novel, which is sophisticated and extremely well written...Readers of all ages will enjoy Frew's engaging prose." FOUR STARS --Bookseller & Publisher magazine
"House of Sticks affords an achingly lifelike glimpse into contemporary Australian domesticity. Frew's style is colloquial, photorealistic, and yet in its knife-edge focus it is able to slip into a darker, hidden world of psychological fissure and urban dread." --Canberra Times
"Excellently unnerving...A tantalisingly strong debut." --Melbourne Review
"[House of Sticks is] the kind of tune that hovers in the air well after the last note has sounded." --Sunday Age
"An accomplished and compassionate portrait of contemporary family life in all its delights and drudgery." --Sunday Tasmanian
"Her [Frew's] prose is deceptively powerful...House of Sticks is vivid and contemporary on the page." --Weekend Australian
"Peggy Frew's crystalline eye observes the shoreline of domestic life...Helen Garner meets Henry James in this suburban gothic, where innocence can turn to menace in a moment, love to resentment, and trust to prickling suspicion." --Kate Veitch
"Brilliant. Peggy Frew is a superb writer, and this is a remarkably confident debut." --Clare Bowditch
Peggy Frew's debut novel, House of Sticks, won the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. Her story 'Home Visit' won The Age short story competition. She has been published in New Australian Stories 2, Kill Your Darlings, The Big Issue, and Meanjin. Peggy is also a member of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Melbourne band Art of Fighting. Her latest novel is Hope Farm.
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