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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Your father. His head is a ghost trap. It's all he can do to open his mouth without letting them all howl out. Even so, you can still see them, sliding around the dark behind his eyes …
'It is New Year's Eve, 1990, and Ru's father has disappeared again. Haunted by the horrors of the Vietnam War, Jack has been an erratic – and at times violent – presence in his family's life. Meanwhile, Ru's sister, Lani, is constantly fighting with their mother, both suffocated by the small country town where they live. And then there's Les, Jack's brother, destined to be on the periphery, but harbouring his own desires.
'As each of the five reckons with the past, what emerges is an incandescent portrait of one family forever scarred by war. Tender, brutal, and heart-stopping in its beauty, A Loving, Faithful Animal is a hypnotic novel by one of Australia's brightest talents.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
-
Dedication: For N.
-
Epigraph:
Here's the house with childhood
whittled down to a single red tripwire.
Don't worry. Just call it horizon
& you'll never reach it.
Here's today. Jump.
–Ocean Vuong
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
- Braille.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
Wrinkles in Time
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 8 October 2017; (p. 20)'I don’t want to start with Larkin because Josephine Rowe’s debut novel, “A Loving, Faithful Animal,” makes an ocean from his aphorism. Even if Larkin’s declaration remains stubbornly true — that old, known poem of how our mum and dad mess us up — Rowe’s book, a slim beauty, does so much to complicate this idea, in such a small space, that I found myself considering those rare things only books can do, feats outside the purview of film or fine art. Imagine Rowe taking a page of blank paper — call it linear time — and crumpling the page into a ball. Nineteen-sixty-seven is flush against 1990. This crumpling, collapsing of Chronos is what it means to have a memory that’s associative and wild, or a family that might be equally uncontrollable.' (Introduction)
-
Defiance
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 381 2016; (p. 56)
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel -
A Loving, Faithful Animal Review: Josephine Rowe's Concise Style Has Power
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 14 May 2016;
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel 'Some stories require more space than others. This is what the Australian author Josephine Rowe discovered when she started writing about Ru, a young girl living in a fractured family more familiar with trauma than what's for dinner that night and whose turn it is to take the rubbish out. ...' -
Trauma's Lengthening Shadows
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 May 2016; (p. 26) The Age , 14-15 May 2016; (p. 24)
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel -
The Past Makes Its Presence Felt … at Home
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12-13 March 2016; (p. 22)
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel
-
The Past Makes Its Presence Felt … at Home
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12-13 March 2016; (p. 22)
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel -
Trauma's Lengthening Shadows
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 May 2016; (p. 26) The Age , 14-15 May 2016; (p. 24)
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel -
A Loving, Faithful Animal Review: Josephine Rowe's Concise Style Has Power
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 14 May 2016;
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel 'Some stories require more space than others. This is what the Australian author Josephine Rowe discovered when she started writing about Ru, a young girl living in a fractured family more familiar with trauma than what's for dinner that night and whose turn it is to take the rubbish out. ...' -
Defiance
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 381 2016; (p. 56)
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel -
Lip Lit : A Loving, Faithful Animal
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Lip Magazine 2016;
— Review of A Loving, Faithful Animal 2016 single work novel -
Wrinkles in Time
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 8 October 2017; (p. 20)'I don’t want to start with Larkin because Josephine Rowe’s debut novel, “A Loving, Faithful Animal,” makes an ocean from his aphorism. Even if Larkin’s declaration remains stubbornly true — that old, known poem of how our mum and dad mess us up — Rowe’s book, a slim beauty, does so much to complicate this idea, in such a small space, that I found myself considering those rare things only books can do, feats outside the purview of film or fine art. Imagine Rowe taking a page of blank paper — call it linear time — and crumpling the page into a ball. Nineteen-sixty-seven is flush against 1990. This crumpling, collapsing of Chronos is what it means to have a memory that’s associative and wild, or a family that might be equally uncontrollable.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2018 shortlisted Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards — Award for Fiction
- 2017 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2017 joint winner The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year
- 2017 longlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
