Underrated and overlooked?

Posting on the excellent Killings blog on the Kill Your Darlings journal website last week, S.A. Jones mused on why great Australian books are being overlooked. Writing in the wake of The Small Press Network’s Most Underrated Book Awards of 2013, Jones considered what it means to be ‘underrated’. She quoted MUBA 2013 nominee Ginger … Read more…

Otago Daily Times reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt

The review by Ian Williams in the Otago Daily Times (Saturday 23 November 2013) of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt grabbed me — and not in a good way — with its opening sentence: I meant to send this first novel back to the books editor, it seemed so obviously a “woman’s book”. I was poised to get all outraged … Read more…

ANZ LitLovers reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt

Lisa Hill has posted a lovely review of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt this week on the ANZ LitLovers blog. Here are a few lines from the review. This is an absorbing book that held my interest throughout.  Farr captures rapture and tragedy with consummate skill to create so remarkable a portrait, that it’s hard to believe that … Read more…

‘Life, love and the theremin’ interview on RNZ

Tracy Farr talks with Lynn Freeman from Radio New Zealand’s Arts on Sunday about the theremin, the nature of home, and The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt. The interview was broadcast on Arts on Sunday (6 October 2013), prompting the show’s musical motif of tracks featuring theremin. Listen to the interview: You can read show notes and … Read more…

NZ Listener reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt

Hazel Phillips reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt in the Listener (Vol 240, No. 3831, October 12-18, 2013); that’s the issue with the starry starry photo of local literary luminary Eleanor Catton on the cover. I’m particularly chuffed to share the page with a review of Fiona Kidman’s new novel, The Infinite Air, as Fiona launched Lena … Read more…

A might, mighty night – New Zealand launch of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt

On Saturday 21 September, at Mighty Mighty bar in Wellington, Dame Fiona Kidman declared “The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, and your mysterious gorgeous character, well and truly launched”. Here’s a taste of how the evening progressed. The velvet curtain backdrop of the Mighty matched the novel’s cover, displayed gloriously by Alex and Todd on … Read more…

‘Tracy Farr’s The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt’ interview, ABC RN

When I was in Perth last week I talked with Miyuki Jokiranta from ABC Radio National’s Books and Arts Daily about sound and light, theremins, the space between, and my novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt. The interview was broadcast today, and you can download audio or listen here.

‘Tracy Farr shares Cottesloe memories’ interview, Starfish online

While in Perth for the launch of The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, I talked with Jacqueline Lang for Starfish magazine about Cottesloe – growing up there, my family connections to the place, how it inspired the novel – and shared some family photos taken in Cottesloe in the 1940s.   Read the interview online: Tracy Farr shares Cottesloe memories