The Deed (Susannah Begbie, Hachette)

Small-town cattle farmer Tom Edwards knows he is going to die—before he does, he pays a visit to the local solicitor to change the terms of his will. Upon his death, his four children are saddled with building their father’s coffin in four days… or their sizable family inheritance (including farmland valued in the millions) will go to the shady local solicitor. As they return to the family estate, each sibling bears the weight of their own shortcomings. Middle sister Christine is highly organised but deeply embittered by her myriad responsibilities. Dave buckles under the pressure of his personal and business failures. The youngest, free-spirited Sophie, has a budding romance on her mind, but only as a distraction from her own inertia. Meanwhile, the enigmatic eldest sibling, Jenny, buries her pain in manual labour. Amid squabbles, setbacks and humorously cringeworthy moments, a near-impossible brief becomes a race against the clock with unexpected twists and turns. Set against a cinematic landscape, these siblings must face the traumas of their past and reckon with the uncertainty of the future. Told in digestible, short chapters from each sibling’s perspective, Richell Prize winner Susannah Begbie’s debut novel The Deed is reminiscent of family sagas such as Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible and William Faulkner’s classic As I Lay Dying, but with a distinctly rural Australian flavour.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Denise Jarrott is an author and writer whose work has appeared in Overland, South Carolina Review, Denver Quarterly and elsewhere. She grew up in Iowa and currently lives in Naarm/Melbourne. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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