AustLit

'Scenes of reading are everywhere in Lohrey's fiction, which throughout questions what reading does to and for us. Her work explores its frustrations, disappointments, limits, and trans-formative potential. In her novels books are set by well-meaning reading groups, picked up by chance in second-hand shops or coffee tables, inherited by unwilling daughters and sons. They are hidden under the bed, stolen by ASIO, burned as instructed. And they are read for reasons ranging from duty, political education, information, boredom, desperation,  meaning, and guidance. Lohrey's interest in reading is concrete:  not only are we told that her characters are reading, why and where. In this way her work is deeply intertextual. We read over the shoulders of Lohrey's characters, with excerpts of the books they are reading. Lohrey's readers are prompted to realise the process taking place while they are encountering her work: the act of reading, we are reminded, is a singular moment in which a work takes on specific meanings for each reader.  It is both intensely private and a site of connection with other readers, writers and potential selves.' (Publication summary)