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'The family secrets are only just beginning to unravel...
'When her elderly mother is hospitalised after an accident, Vicki is summoned to her parents' isolated and run-down ranch home in Alberta, Canada, to care for her father. She has been estranged from her parents for many years (the reasons for which become quickly clear) and is horrified by what she discovers on her arrival.
'For years her mother has suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness but carefully hidden her delusions and unpredictable behaviour behind a carefully guarded mask, and has successfully isolated herself and her husband from all their friends. But once in hospital her mask begins to crack and her actions leave everyone baffled and confused ... and eventually scared for their lives.
'Meanwhile Vicki's father, who has been systematically starved and harruanged for years, and kept virtually a prisoner in his own home, begins to realise what has happened to him and embarks upon plans of his own to combat his wife.
'The ensuing power play between the two takes a dramatic turn and leaves Vicki stuck in the middle of a bizzare and ludicrously strange family dilemma. All this makes for an intensely gripping, yet black-humoured family drama which will leave you on the edge of your seat.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
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This work has teaching resources.
Notes
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Writing Disability in Australia
Type of disability Mental illness (specifics unconfirmed). Type of character Primary. Point of view Third person. -
Dedication: For Laurence and Simon, and for Irene.
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This book has been selected for Guardian Australia’s series The Unmissables, highlighting the most notable Australian books of the year.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
- Dyslexic edition.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
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Sifting the Ruins in a Tempestuous Mother’s Wake
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 12 August 2020; (p. 5)
— Review of The Erratics 2018 single work autobiography'Ancient glaciers did not travel alone. They carried within them pebbles, rocks, even boulders, sometimes for hundreds of miles. These migrating stones, once deposited, are called “erratics” — they stick out among their new surroundings. When the Cordilleran ice sheet worked its way down the mountains of Alaska and across western Canada, it melted to reveal a trail of angular stones now known as the Foothills Erratics Train.' (Introduction)
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A Vapor Trail Across the Sun : Making Order Out of Chaos
2020
single work
autobiography
— Appears in: Griffith Review , April no. 68 2020; (p. 280-287) -
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie – A Memoir of Entirely Its Own Genre
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 13 May 2019;'With agile humour and moments of tenderness, The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie evokes the Canadian winter and the trauma of living with a manipulative parent. The second in Guardian Australia’s literary highlights series for 2019.'(Introduction)
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I Needed to Deal with My Destructive Demons before I Could Write about My Past
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 14 May 2019;'In her Stella prize-winning memoir, The Erratics, Vicki Laveau-Harvie deals with the trauma she experienced at the hands of a parent. Writing it, though, was anything but cathartic.' (Introduction)
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Blood Calls to Blood
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , July 2019;'It is difficult to know where to begin with The Erratics. For the story begins many times, at different places and points. The book begins near the end of the story, although more follows, and what happened before is revealed fleetingly, in slow unravellings and chronological leaps. So let us begin here firstly with the context, why I am writing about this book and why you might have heard of it.' (Introduction)
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Six Books that Shock, Delve Deeply and Destroy Pieties : Your Guide to the 2019 Stella Prize Shortlist
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 8 April 2019;
— Review of Little Gods 2018 single work novel ; The Bridge 2018 single work novel ; Pink Mountain on Locust Island 2018 single work novel ; The Erratics 2018 single work autobiography ; Too Much Lip 2018 single work novel ; Axiomatic 2018 single work prose -
Sifting the Ruins in a Tempestuous Mother’s Wake
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 12 August 2020; (p. 5)
— Review of The Erratics 2018 single work autobiography'Ancient glaciers did not travel alone. They carried within them pebbles, rocks, even boulders, sometimes for hundreds of miles. These migrating stones, once deposited, are called “erratics” — they stick out among their new surroundings. When the Cordilleran ice sheet worked its way down the mountains of Alaska and across western Canada, it melted to reveal a trail of angular stones now known as the Foothills Erratics Train.' (Introduction)
-
'A Dream' : Out of Print Memoir Shortlisted for 2019 Stella Prize
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 8 March 2019;'Sydney writer Vicki Laveau-Harvie joins five others in the running for the $50,000 prize for Australian women’s writing.'
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Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s Remarkable, Uncomfortable Memoir Wins the 2019 Stella Prize
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 9 April 2019;'Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s memoir of a “monstrous” mother has won the 2019 Stella Prize. The Erratics tells the story of Vicki’s return home to a prairie house in the sparse wintry landscapes of Alberta, Canada, where she grew up. Once there, the narrator faces family relationships that are strained to the point of breaking.' (Introduction)
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y
The Stella Prize 2019 : Vicki Laveau-Harvie
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2019
16375488
2019
single work
single work
interview
podcast
'Vicki Laveau-Harvie was born in Canada, but lived for many years in France before settling in Australia. She worked as a translator and editor in France, and then lectured in French Studies at Macquarie University in Australia. After retiring, she taught ethics in a primary school.
Vicki's debut work, her memoir The Erratics, won the Finch Memoir Prize in 2018 and The Stella Prize in 2019.'
Source: Introduction.
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Stella Prize Won by First-time Author Vicki Laveau-Harvie for Her Memoir of Family Dysfunction, The Erratics
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , April 2019; -
Blood Calls to Blood
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , July 2019;'It is difficult to know where to begin with The Erratics. For the story begins many times, at different places and points. The book begins near the end of the story, although more follows, and what happened before is revealed fleetingly, in slow unravellings and chronological leaps. So let us begin here firstly with the context, why I am writing about this book and why you might have heard of it.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2019 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- 2019 winner The Stella Prize
- 2018 winner Finch Memoir Prize
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