BUTTERFLY
Sonya Hartnett – Hamish Hamilton – NZ$35

I am a great admirer of Hartnett’s writing, there is no doubt she is an outstanding contemporary Australian novelist, and this latest work is hugely impressive but I cannot say that I enjoyed it.
It is beautifully written, the characters are superbly developed but I found it disquieting, the characters unpleasant and unappealing, and in the end the story, largely about a 14 year old girl and her unhappy life in that ghastly zone between childhood and adulthood, didn’t really go anywhere.
Hartnett is a demanding author, she leaves much to the reader’s interpretation; that is one of her hallmarks.
So another impressive work of literary fiction from her but not one that worked for me.