AustLit

'The Therapist, from bestselling author Hugh Mackay, is a powerful and poignant story of deception, ambiguity, lust and love – and the challenge of living with the consequences of our actions.

A VIVID PORTRAYAL OF THE COMPLEXITIES OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE

'Martha Elliott, maverick psychotherapist, harbours some dark secrets from her own past, and is more interested in achieving good outcomes for her clients than playing by the rules. Martha blends counselling with breathing exercises, meditation, foot massages . . . whatever it takes. In a series of intense encounters with her clients, deep insights and raw truths about human nature emerge, including reflections on the nature of psychotherapy itself.

'Rob, Martha's colleague, is trapped in a tempestuous relationship with the beautiful and feisty Constancia, and Martha wonders if he will ever find the resolve to free himself.

'Samantha, Martha's daughter, hears her biological clock ticking, but finding the right sperm donor is proving to be harder than she expected . . .

'Then there's the mysterious couple who arrive in Martha's office. Who are they? And what is it that they know about her?

'With tenderness and compassion, Hugh Mackay's captivating new novel, The Therapist, explores some of the deepest yearnings of the human heart.' (Publication summary)

'What really goes on in a marriage?

'Richard and Freya are, on the surface, a perfect couple. He has a thriving architectural practice; she plays the violin like an angel. They live in a beautiful home. They seem respectful and caring of one another.

'Lincoln The Hunter is living the dream. Universally admired and terrifically charming, he has a formidable reputation in the world of advertising, and is the jewel in the crown of agency KK&C.

'When Linc is handed the reins of the high-budget, high-profile campaign for the groundbreaking new snack 'The Ripper', he knows it's his chance to leverage his way to greater success and greener, more glamorous pastures. No matter that it will leave KK&C floundering in his wake ...

'Ruthless in his pursuit of professional success, it doesn't occur to Linc that he himself might be the pawn in this great game of advertising, where no method - be it a calculated office affair or 'disruptive skydiving' - is off limits to aid in selling the dream.

'In this laugh-out-loud funny and frighteningly believable satire, Hugh Mackay lays bare the machinations of this multi-million-dollar industry, and leaves you wondering just where the line between parody and reality falls.' (Publication Summary)

'The eternal question 'Who am I?' must be weighed against an even deeper question: 'Who are we?' We are writing each other's stories as much as we are writing our own.

'In his bestselling book, The Good Life, Hugh Mackay argued that kindness and respect for others are the hallmarks of a life well lived. Now in The Art of Belonging Mackay shows how strong communities develop develop our moral sense and build our emotional security. He says that as 'social creatures' we can only reach our potential when we engage with our communities - in the local neighbourhood, a work and even online.

'Drawing on his lifelong work as a social researcher, Mackay creates a fictional suburb, Southwood, and populates it with characters who, like most of us, struggle to reconcile their need to belong with their desire to live life on their own terms. Through a series of stories, illuminated by Mackay's social analysis, we witness the conflicts that arise when individuals assert their needs at the expense of others, but we also glimpse the satisfactions that flow from contributing to the common good.

'Compellingly argued and written with wisdom, compassion and wit, The Art of Belonging is for those who yearn for a society that sustains and nurtures the many, not just the fortunate few.' (Publication summary)

'The hardest thing, finally, is to accept our insignificance in the scheme of things - or perhaps to accept that there is no 'scheme of things'.

'Tom Harper, a 43-year-old Australian psychologist, is in self-imposed exile in London, living down a sexual indiscretion with a client. Through a chance meeting at the Royal Academy, he makes friends with Sarah Delacour, an academic who studies nursery rhymes. Sarah is beautiful, charming and smart, but she is morally trapped - and perhaps corrupted - by decisions she has made in the past.

'As Tom and Sarah's relationship evolves, many layers of infidelity emerge. Tom falls deeply in love and waits for Sarah to reciprocate. But while Sarah is brilliant at playing the role of a woman in love, Tom fears her ultimate commitment may be to securing a life of luxury.

'Through his fiction and non-fiction, Hugh Mackay has developed a reputation as an acute and compassionate observer of the human condition, with all its shades of light and dark. In this beautifully written tale of love and the desire for control, he explores one of life's most troubling questions: do our circumstances justify or merely explain our behaviour?' (Publisher's blurb)

'Set in a typical contemporary suburb, Ways of Escape is the first-person story of Tom, a clinical psychologist who's losing patience with his affluent, perfection-seeking clients. Divorced and struggling with professional burnout, he's open to the possibility of radical change.

He allows himself to become reckless with a client intent on seducing him, leading to a charge of professional misconduct and the humiliating prospect of deregistration. He is caught up in the disappearance of a neighbour who had recently left his wife and children. And a lighthearted distraction comes in the form of an offer to write for a motoring magazine - an experience Tom finds liberating.

Two streams of Tom's life then intersect when he agrees to advise one of the candidates for election as chancellor at a boutique university. Three people are contesting the election: a corporate lawyer who has recently crossed swords with a relative of Tom's, the charismatic proprietor of a chain of real estate agencies, and an eminence grise on the academic staff.' (Publisher's blurb)

According to Hugh McKay 'Social analysis is educated guesswork; fiction draws from the well of personal reality.' Mackay argues that 'virtually without exception, it seems to me, the most convincing characters in any work of literary fiction will be facets of the author's own personality. The very process that gives fiction its authenticity demands tht the author's psyche come out of hiding to express itself through impersonation.'