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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Anja is a young, ambitious antiquarian, passionate for the clean and balanced lines of mid-century furniture. She is intent on classifying objects based on emotional response and when her career goes awry, Anja finds herself adrift. Like a close friend, she confesses her intimacies and rage to us with candour, tenderness, and humour.
'Cast out from the world of antiques, she stumbles upon a beachside cottage that the neighbouring naval base is offering for a 100-year lease. The property is derelict, isolated, and surrounded by scrub. Despite of, or because of, its wildness and solitude, Anja uses the last of the inheritance from her mother to lease the property. Yet a presence – human, ghost, other – seemingly inhabits the grounds.
'Hydra is a novel of dark suspense and mental disquiet, struck through with black humour. Adriane Howell beguilingly explores notions of moral culpability, revenge, memory, and narrative – all through the female lens of freedom and constraint. She holds us captive to the last page.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Author's note: In memory of my grandmothers, Daphne & Valda
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Seeking Derangement
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , May 2023;
— Review of Hydra 2022 single work novel'Have you ever been really stoned with a complete stranger and even though, even in your heightened state, you know that everything that’s happening is just a bit of fun, there’s something so deeply off-putting about watching this stranger become unmoored from themself in front of you that you begin to panic? Consider the following passage from Hydra, Adrianne Howell’s debut novel, in which the protagonist, Anja, alone and unravelling in her secluded beachside property, prepares to take herself out on the town:...' (Introduction)
- y Adriane Howell for The Stella Shortlist Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2023 26204851 2023 podcast interview
-
Stella Prize Shortlist 2023 : Your Guide to 6 Gripping, Courageous Books
2023
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 26 April 2023; -
[Review] Hydra
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 154 2022;
— Review of Hydra 2022 single work novel -
Damsels in Distress : Two New Australian Novels Fail to Achieve Their Literary Ambitions
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 24 October 2022;
— Review of Hydra 2022 single work novel ; Faithless 2022 single work novel'The covers of two new Australian novels, Hydra and Faithless, play into a current design trend in Australian publishing. Faceless women in various states of melodramatic distress – either flung over furniture, or pictured against blurred or monochromatic backgrounds. Arms, hands or long, dishevelled hair conceal their faces. It’s a trend spurred on, no doubt, by the runaway success of Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss.' (Introduction)
-
Damsels in Distress : Two New Australian Novels Fail to Achieve Their Literary Ambitions
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 24 October 2022;
— Review of Hydra 2022 single work novel ; Faithless 2022 single work novel'The covers of two new Australian novels, Hydra and Faithless, play into a current design trend in Australian publishing. Faceless women in various states of melodramatic distress – either flung over furniture, or pictured against blurred or monochromatic backgrounds. Arms, hands or long, dishevelled hair conceal their faces. It’s a trend spurred on, no doubt, by the runaway success of Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss.' (Introduction)
-
[Review] Hydra
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 154 2022;
— Review of Hydra 2022 single work novel -
Seeking Derangement
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , May 2023;
— Review of Hydra 2022 single work novel'Have you ever been really stoned with a complete stranger and even though, even in your heightened state, you know that everything that’s happening is just a bit of fun, there’s something so deeply off-putting about watching this stranger become unmoored from themself in front of you that you begin to panic? Consider the following passage from Hydra, Adrianne Howell’s debut novel, in which the protagonist, Anja, alone and unravelling in her secluded beachside property, prepares to take herself out on the town:...' (Introduction)
-
Stella Prize Shortlist 2023 : Your Guide to 6 Gripping, Courageous Books
2023
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 26 April 2023; - y Adriane Howell for The Stella Shortlist Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2023 26204851 2023 podcast interview
Awards
- 2023 shortlisted Readings Prizes — Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
- 2023 shortlisted The Stella Prize