'‘I think what Darren’s really good at, is that he sort of understands other people. Sometimes, even if I don’t say anything, he seems to know what I’m feeling anyway.’
Cassie’s face lit up. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’s what I think too. That’s exactly what I think…’
'Roland lives with his parents, Graham and Joyce, and his younger sister, Lily, in the golden light of an outer suburb— Glenella. He dreams of escaping, of finding an intoxicating life somewhere else.
'He is in love with Cassie Noble, the daughter of his parents’ friends Reg and Colleen. But when Darren Wilson moves into the neighbourhood and attracts the interest of both teens, a conflict emerges that threatens the friendship between the two families.
'Following his acclaimed debut, The Vintage and the Gleaning, Jeremy Chambers’ new novel, Suburbia, is a revelation: a coming-of-age drama about the end of innocence set in a hidden world of paling fences and fragrant lawns, amid the flickering light of memory and desire.' (Publication summary)
'If it’s possible to write richly about a very bleak place, Jeremy Chambers has done it in this book about the Australian suburb, a place “not really known for anything: people lived here, but that was all”. Suburbia, Chambers’ second novel after the much-praised The Vintage and the Gleaning, adds another voice to a welcome wave of Australian fiction that re-evaluates family life at the end of the 20th century, a time just close enough to make readers feel rather uncomfortable without quite causing us to look away.' (Introduction)
'If it’s possible to write richly about a very bleak place, Jeremy Chambers has done it in this book about the Australian suburb, a place “not really known for anything: people lived here, but that was all”. Suburbia, Chambers’ second novel after the much-praised The Vintage and the Gleaning, adds another voice to a welcome wave of Australian fiction that re-evaluates family life at the end of the 20th century, a time just close enough to make readers feel rather uncomfortable without quite causing us to look away.' (Introduction)
