'HETTY and Ness have been best friends since childhood. Hetty is captivating, the life of the party. Ness is a wallflower, hopelessly in love with her.
'Leaving Melbourne to live abroad, they take a room in a share house of creatives in Toronto’s student quarter. Hetty disappears into barkeeping and nightlife, while Ness drifts aimlessly.
'But when Ness finds Faith in the art gallery, an intense affair develops. With friends and a job, at last her life starts to make sense. And Hetty’s starts to fall apart, a mess of bad drugs and bad men.
'As winter freezes the lakeside city, the dark undercurrents of Hetty’s character—abusive relationships, dangerous obsessions—become stronger. Ness may lose the person she loves more than anyone else in the world.
'Cherry Beach is a revelatory and beautifully written story of friendship and desire.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Epigraph :
'And indeed I remember believing
As a child, I could walk on water-
The next wave, the next wave-
It was only a matter of balance.'
-Gwen Harwood, At Mornington
Epigraph :
'Our love and our love alone
Keeps dowsing for water.
Sinking the well of each other, digging together.
Each one the other's phantom limb.'
-Marin Sorescu, Fountains in the Sea (translated by Seamus Heaney)
'An accomplished tale of female friendship notable for its queer representation.'
'How do you define love? How much of yourself do you need to sacrifice to keep a friendship afloat? And can we ever truly understand the inner workings of other people’s lives? These are some of the questions that Laura McPhee-Browne explores in Cherry Beach, a gentle tale of female friendship.' (Introduction)
'The blurb for Cherry Beach, Melbourne-based author Laura McPhee-Browne’s debut novel, reads like the most tired kind of chick lit. It promises melodrama – in the form of lifelong friendships torn asunder, unrequited love and men gone bad, all set to the tune of “dark undercurrents” – albeit with a queer twist.' (Introduction)
'How do you define love? How much of yourself do you need to sacrifice to keep a friendship afloat? And can we ever truly understand the inner workings of other people’s lives? These are some of the questions that Laura McPhee-Browne explores in Cherry Beach, a gentle tale of female friendship.' (Introduction)
