Little World
A Novel
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A mesmerising tale from one of Australia’s literary stars
'He has no notion of how to care for a saint. Even a small one. Does not even believe … Still. Catholic or not. You don't turn away a saint.'
In the north-western corner of 1950s Australia, a saint arrives at the home of a retired engineer, who unwittingly becomes her custodian. A girl of indeterminate age, her body remains as it was when she died, incorruptible. And though no one knows it, she is conscious, reflecting on past and present.
Little World stretches across continents and eras – from the Canal Zone in Panama and the island of Nauru all the way to the onset of Covid in contemporary Victoria. Beautiful, rich and strange, it weaves a tale of interconnected fates as characters grapple with the unknowable, and in this way come face to face with their deepest needs.
'Josephine Rowe is a breathtakingly good writer.' —Michelle de Kretser
'Each new work from Josephine Rowe is a revelation.' —Madeleine Thien
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The lyrical if diffuse latest from Rowe (after the story collection Here Until August) revolves around the corpse of a girl purported to be a saint. In 1950s Australia, retired carpenter Orrin Bird is willed the preserved remains of an unnamed girl by his late friend Kaspar Isaksen, a leprosy researcher who died of alcoholism. The girl is not officially beatified, nor is Orrin Catholic, but he accepts Kaspar's bequest and resolves to honor the girl's legacy. The body secretes tears, which Kaspar used in his leprosy treatments. Orrin maintains the corpse until his death, and she's later discovered in an abandoned horse trailer in the 1970s by insomniac Matti Eberhart. For Matti, long tormented by the forced adoption of her child when she was much younger, the saint is a "conduit" for her grief, which pours out in a burst of emotion. Rowe's language is arresting, particularly in her depictions of the saint ("The sound of something unseen within, tinking as if loose.... And something further beneath that, again, denser, sweeter, richer; this side of life but more secret"), but she doesn't quite elucidate her themes or illuminate her characters' inner lives. Rowe is a consummate stylist, but this doesn't make much of an impact.
