I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and I find it hard to believe. — Robert Louis Stevenson I’m like RL Stevenson in that respect. I love a map. Maps, diagrams and geological bulletins (one bulletin in particular) caught my imagination and took over the reins while I was writing my novel The … Read more…
About Tracy Farr
The most beautiful home movie ever made
I was sorry to hear, a fortnight ago, of the death of film director Jonathan Demme. The tweets and obits all namechecked the films he’s best known for: The Silence of the Lambs (1991, five Oscars), Philadelphia (1993, two Oscars), and (arguably the best concert film ever) Stop Making Sense (1984). But my thoughts turned first to … Read more…
‘A way with words: Writing as a physical activity’ for NZ Listener
New Zealand Listener has this year been running a regular feature, A way with words, in which they invite New Zealand writers to describe their writing day. I was thrilled to be asked to write a piece, and my contribution was published this week (the issue dated 6 May 2017, on newsstands the week before that) under the … Read more…
‘Shelf Awareness: Tracy Farr’ interview with Maureen Eppen
Perth writer and reviewer Maureen Eppen wrote two great articles (in The West Australian newspaper back in February, and in Good Reading magazine’s April issue) as a result of our long phone interview back in January this year. I was delighted when Maureen asked if I’d take part in her new blog series, Shelf Awareness, in which writers … Read more…
Louise O’Brien reviews The Hope Fault on RNZ
Louise O’Brien reviewed The Hope Fault on RNZ Nine to Noon (26 April 2017), in the NZ Books review slot. The novel is beautifully restrained … I recommend it highly. It is smart writing, it’s thoughtful and nuanced. It’s respectful of the reader, it lets you fill in the gaps, and it lets you leave gaps unfilled … It feels very much … Read more…
2, 2 and 2: talking about The Hope Fault
I’m a huge fan of Perth writer Amanda Curtin’s work, particularly her beautiful novels Elemental and The Sinkings. I was delighted when she asked me to contribute a guest blog post for her 2, 2 and 2 series, celebrating writers and their new books. For my 2, 2 and 2 post for Amanda, I wrote … Read more…
The Hope Fault: interview on RNZ Standing Room Only
I spoke with Lynn Freeman for Standing Room Only, the weekly arts programme on RNZ National, about my new novel, The Hope Fault. Listen to the interview (‘The Hope Fault – new writing’, 16 April 2017) online. Standing Room Only is ‘literally radio with pictures … and arts, theatre, film, comedy, books, dance, entertainment, pop culture, and music – … Read more…
Passion
A short story by Tracy Farr Ellie’s having trouble finding rabbits for sale. ‘Not much call for them,’ the man at the supermarket tells her. ‘You could try the butcher in Island Bay,’ but she already has. And no, Bambi won’t do. It has to be rabbit. At Easter. She has to cook the Easter … Read more…
Catherine Robertson reviews The Hope Fault for NZ Listener
Catherine Robertson reviewed The Hope Fault for New Zealand Listener (8 April 2017 edition – dated today, but on newsstands last weekend). … Tracy Farr’s quietly brilliant second novel … is an accomplished, immersive, moving book. Highly recommended.— Catherine Robertson, NZ Listener Click on the image below left to read the full review.
Music to warm a book by
This week we held a bookwarming in Wellington to celebrate the publication earlier in the month of my second novel, The Hope Fault. A bunch of us gathered (like the bunch of people in my book gather) to talk and drink and eat, under the unsettling but appropriate gaze of the wallabies and possums dotted about the … Read more…