Congratulations to Vicki Laveau-Harvie whose extraordinary memoir The Erratics has been named winner of the 2019 Stella Prize.
The Erratics was the first book I read when I embarked on my project to read all the books on the Stella Prize shortlist. It was the kind of memoir I simply couldn’t put down. Fortunately, I was on holiday at the time — in Fremantle, Western Australia — so I have very fond memories of lying on a sofa and later sitting on a sun-washed balcony being completely immersed in this story.
It’s a compelling account of dealing with elderly parents — one of whom is trying to kill the other — from afar.
According to the Stella Prize Twitter account, it’s a “sharp, darkly funny and powerful book” that “explores the universal themes of family, the pain they can inflict and the legacy they leave”.
You can read my full review here.
The $50,000 prize is for Australian women writers, and only books, both fiction and non-fiction, published in 2018 were eligible.
Reading Matters 
What a lovely image: lying on the sofa, sitting in the sun, immersed in the story. This is the time for the announcement of literary prizes; today we learn of the MBIP 2019 short list. I will look for Erratic, not sure if my library has it. Probably not.😔
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*The Erratics, goodness sake.
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You will probably have trouble finding it. The independent press that published it went bust at the end of last year; it has been picked up and republished by Fourth Estate but that was only at the end of March and it doesn’t look like it is world rights, which is such a pity as it’s such a wonderful, sometimes shocking, read.
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You’re right, I’m having a hard time. Amazon has the paperback for $21.00, and there is no Kindle available. I may purchase it, but what you said makes sense about it being difficult to obtain.
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I’m hoping the win may at least force the publisher to release an eBook for international consumption 🤞
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