Reach by Laurence Fearnley

In this brilliant contemporary novel award-winning writer Laurence Fearnley explores risk-taking and the ways in which creativity, struggle and danger enrich people’s lives.

Against the backdrop of a rocky coastline, Quinn , a celebrated artist who prefers her own company to that of others, seeks refuge in her studio and on the beach as she prepares for an important exhibition. Meanwhile Marcus, an enigmatic vet who left his marriage and young daughter, Audrey, for Quinn, battles with issues of loyalty, love and divided responsibilities as he tries to reconcile the events of his life.

As Quinn finds solace in her art and counts down the weeks to the opening of her exhibition, ‘The Marriage Tomb’, Marcus retreats, seeking relief in his work and daily runs, all the while trying to find a path back to his daughter. Both he and Quinn must face challenges and make choices that will test their loyalties and have far-reaching consequences for their future.

Reach is a beautifully crafted, poetic novel that breaks from the recent fashion for historial fiction in New Zealand. It is Laurence Fearnley’s first novel since she won the New Zealand Post Book Awards fiction prize in 2011 for The Hut Builder.

About the author:

Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning novelist. Her novel The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards and was shortlisted for the international 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain writing. Her book Edwin and Matilda was runner-up in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and her second novel, Room, was shortlisted for the 2001 Montana Book Awards. In 2004 Fearnley was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. Laurence Fearnley lives in Dunedin with her husband and son

Laurence Fearnley is a novelist and non-fiction writer. Her last novel, The Hut Builder, won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards an