AustLit

'Most of the events and interactions in Katherine Brabon’s Body Friend occur in the months immediately after the narrator undergoes major surgery, to ameliorate some of the effects of her chronic autoimmune illness. She returns to work – and by extension, to the greater social world – towards the end of the novel. On her first day back, she feels herself “on a pendulum between two different selves”. One of these selves is distant and almost skittish, longing for nothing more than to be alone and back at home. The other is “a more clear and confident person” who moves and speaks with ease, and, importantly, “control[s] the illness” – or, at least, her reaction to its fluctuations and pain.' (Introduction)