The High Places (Fiona McFarlane, Hamish Hamilton)

After receiving international accolades for her Miles Franklin-shortlisted debut novel The Night Guest, Fiona McFarlane follows up with a short-story collection laden with wry wit and a deceptive simplicity. The collection moves boldly between place, perspective and voice, describing situations that manage to be both hysterically funny and quietly devastating at the same time. In ‘Mycenae’, two middle-aged couples reunite for a trip to Greece after meeting at university decades earlier, and a tense but muted rivalry re-emerges. In ‘The Movie People’, a small town is briefly transformed into a period film set, and its residents become movie extras who remain in character long after the film’s crew have moved on. In the book’s title story, Christian redemption is reimagined in ironic, earth-bound ways through the merciful and economically driven slaughtering of sheep too thirsty to be kept alive. In ‘Those Americans Falling from the Sky’, a young girl’s beloved bicycle is taken away for reasons of feminine propriety, and, when wheeled out years later for a younger half-brother, is deemed too rusty for use. In McFarlane’s worlds, these singular images speak to the larger universal experience that is recognisable, discomfiting and always surprising.

Jenni Kauppi is an editor, critic and bookseller

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