Description
A subtle and haunting meditation on childhood, escape, the bonds and the limits of family, and the long reach of trauma. Rowe is a serious talent, and her debut novel is both gorgeous and stunning.
A subtle and haunting meditation on childhood, escape, the bonds and the limits of family, and the long reach of trauma. Rowe is a serious talent, and her debut novel is both gorgeous and stunning.
An intimate and nuanced portrait of a family flayed raw by PTSD, cycles of abuse and the weighty inheritance of intergenerational trauma, A Loving, Faithful Animal is also beautiful
A slim beauty...A work of such well-defined characters, each so carefully drawn as to breathe, and a work so full of stark emotional moments...Like the best of Breece DJ Pancake or W.G. Sebald, Rowe plants small moments from history as a soldier might bury landmines.
A Loving, Faithful Animal lured me in with astonishing, poetic prose, and a glimpse of an Australia I don't always see in fiction. But the true thrill of the novel is the carousel of haunting characters Josephine Rowe creates with unbelievable precision. An unflinching look at the ways we fail the people we love, at the cruelty of family, its toxicity, and beauty. The book is a deep, multi-faceted portrait of the inheritance of damage, one that left me aching and inspired.
In Rowe's measured and concise writing there's no room, or need, for extravagance, or anything akin to the literary version of small talk. What is written has a kick to it.
A heartbreaking and memorable hero...A rich, kaleidoscopic depiction of inherited trauma in stunning prose.
Josephine Rowe's A Loving, Faithful Animal was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Rowe has held fellowships with the University of Iowa and Stanford University, among others and has recently been named a 2021-2022 Cullman Center Fellow by the New York Public Library.