AustLit

'This study provides an engaging and persuasive exploration of the myths and realities of “Sydney’s connection to its waterway” through a close examination of five novels from the 1930s and 40s written by female authors (7). Each chapter offers a case study that considers how these novels explore the complexities of urban modernity alongside a wide range of literary, cultural and social “currents” of the interwar period. Across this study as a whole, Meg Brayshaw eloquently argues for the value of more regional or localised studies of modernism that facilitate understandings of modernity “as a phenomenon that is both situated and transcalar, conceptual and embodied” (15).' (Introduction)