A Room Made of Leaves
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4.2 • 362 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
What if Elizabeth Macarthur—wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydney—had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? That’s the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented.
Marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her heart, the search for power in a society that gave women none: this Elizabeth Macarthur manages her complicated life with spirit and passion, cunning and sly wit. Her memoir lets us hear—at last!—what one of those seemingly demure women from history might really have thought.
At the centre of A Room Made of Leaves is one of the most toxic issues of our own age: the seductive appeal of false stories. This book may be set in the past, but it’s just as much about the present, where secrets and lies have the dangerous power to shape reality.
Kate Grenville’s return to the territory of The Secret River is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand by one of our most original writers.
Kate Grenville is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. Her international bestseller The Secret River was awarded local and overseas prizes, has been adapted for the stage and as an acclaimed television miniseries, and is now a much-loved classic. Grenville’s other novels include Sarah Thornhill, The Lieutenant, Dark Places and the Orange Prize winner The Idea of Perfection. Her most recent books are two works of non-fiction, One Life: My Mother’s Story and The Case Against Fragrance. She has also written three books about the writing process. In 2017 Grenville was awarded the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. She lives in Melbourne.
‘There is no doubt Grenville is one of our greatest writers’ Sunday Mail
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
After nearly a decade between novels, Australian writer Kate Grenville makes a stunning return to fiction with this sensitive look at the way men get to write history. Set at the dawn of the 19th century, A Room Made of Leaves is told as the memoir of real-life figure Elizabeth Macarthur who, while her husband was overseas, became the mother of Sydney’s newly founded wool industry. As well as being a feminist-minded redressing of the historical record, it also depicts a love story that’s quietly allowed to flourish in the absence of Macarthur’s domineering husband. Unfolding in graceful vignettes, the novel closely follows letters from the actual Macarthur while allowing Grenville to assert her robust imagination.
Customer Reviews
Couldn’t put it down
I couldn’t put this book down. I loved the writing style and I loved reading about Mrs MacArthur and the life she lived. It was really interesting to read about the settlement of Australia in the early days, but even more so through the eyes of a woman. I loved this book.
Masterful, subtle, tedious, anachronistic
The first chapters were captivating as I revelled in Grenville’s subtle observations and masterful word craft. I also admired the clever twists in Elizabeth’s handling (manipulation) of situations for much of it but then I began to find her unmitigated scorn for her husband became tedious, as did the meandering story without much of what resembles a plot. Of course it’s more a fake memoir than a story so that is to be expected but I did find it rather boring and had to force myself to press on to the end. The other thing I recoiled from was the anachronisms in the final chapters—modern perspectives on race and dispossession lumped onto historical figures.