A hypnotic and absorbing debut novel from an extraordinary new talent-a must-read for fans of Sally Rooney, Jennifer Down, Siri Hustvedt and Andre Aciman (Call Me By Your Name).
Laura McPhee-Browne is a writer and social worker living in Melbourne, on Wurundjeri land. Her short stories have been published widely in Australia. Cherry Beach is her first novel. lauramcpheebrowne.com
‘Cherry Beach is a tender and bruising coming-of-age novel.
McPhee-Browne’s writing is both poetic and economical, finely
attuned to the exhilaration and doom of youth, unfamiliar cities
and new relationships.’
*Jennifer Down*
‘Laura McPhee-Browne’s Cherry Beach is an acute and gripping novel
about being made and unmade by first love. In prose reminiscent of
Elizabeth Jolley’s, McPhee-Browne portrays the helpless
entanglement of two friends in their impossible quest for
self-determination. Cherry Beach is a breathtaking debut by a
gifted new voice in Australian fiction.’
*Ellena Savage*
‘A melancholy exploration of mental health, female friendship and
desire, delicately portraying the deep ache of losing the person
you’re closest to...A promising debut.'
*Books+Publishing*
‘Like sparkling wine on a sunny afternoon, Cherry Beach goes down
easily—and leaves a killer hangover. A vibrant, tender debut from a
bright new voice in Australian fiction. I loved every minute of
it.’
*Laura Elizabeth Woollett*
’This beautiful novel is tender: tender like a loving touch, and
tender like a bruise. Cherry Beach will seduce you with its lush
and gorgeous detail and its unguarded openness, and then it will
rip your heart out. In its rawness and its yearning, Cherry Beach
exquisitely captures the intensity of youth, love, desire, and
loss.’
*Emily Bitto*
'If you liked Sally Rooney’s Normal People but were left hankering
for something local, queer, and (possibly) darker, Cherry Beach may
do the trick...A tender, intimate story that will leave its
mark.'
*Readings*
'The debut of Melbourne-based Laura McPhee-Browne is a poetic,
languid, melancholic and sensitive meditation on trying to carve
your own path in that liminal period between the freedom of
childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood.’
*Age*
‘McPhee-Browne’s writing is tender, bruising, sexy and
heartbreaking in equal measure…Cherry Beach has the pace of a
thriller despite urging the reader to linger over the exquisite
details of young desire, capturing the intensity of youth with
refined restraint.’
*Adelaide Review*
'Cherry Beach is the kind of story that bruises…A beautiful,
heartfelt book.'
*Kill Your Darlings*
‘The book deftly captures the experiences that define youth: love,
desire, loss, ambiguity. There is a vulnerability and rawness to
McPhee-Browne’s writing that many will compare to Sally Rooney and
that is completely warranted. This is a really impressive
debut!’
*WellRead*
‘Cherry Beach has been called a queer Normal People, but this
simplifies its multifaceted and nuanced layering of meaning…Through
its exploration of queer actualisation, of the transformative
nature of the friendship and love in our lives, of, the inevitably
beautiful-scary, Cherry Beach succeeds.’
*Lifted Brow*
‘This quiet, precise novel reaches deep into the recesses of female
friendship and finds it wanting…Tying everything together is
McPhee-Browne’s exacting language, which is clear and clean but
also evocatively decadent.’
*Saturday Paper*
‘In its piercing exploration of complex relationships and heady
post-adolescence, its wry observer-narrator, and immersion in the
world of art and books, this gorgeously written novel reminds me of
Sally Rooney, with a dash of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep.’
*InDaily*
‘An exciting addition to this generation of writers.’
*Overland*
‘A brilliant piece of writing, mixing the uncomfortable with the
excitement of travel and new love and taking those feelings to new
heights. Recommended.’
*Sam Still Reading*
‘A tender, carefully-wrought coming-of-age novel that will leave
you aching and bruised…Dark and disturbing, queer and gorgeously
written, this book surprised and entranced me. I felt every stir
and sting of unrequited love I've ever felt, all over again.’
*Better Read Than Dead*
‘For Rooney-lovers who are looking for something tender and
heartfelt, Cherry Beach is the book for you.’
*Readings*
‘Cherry Beach is both a coming-of-age story and a tender depiction
of what it means to grow apart…Highly engaging as well as skilfully
put together…It’s sure to be a favourite among those who enjoy
novels centred around complex friendships.’
*ArtsHub*
‘Captures beautifully the emotional state of early
adulthood…McPhee-Browne outlines Hetty’s unravelling, and Ness’s
response to it, with great delicacy.’
*Fiona Wright, Sydney Review of Books*
‘Ness’s voice is melancholy and distinct, and her experiences of
sexual explorations are delicately and honestly portrayed.
McPhee-Browne immerses the reader in the experience of awkward
emotional growth with great tenderness and insight. At its core,
Cherry Beach is a compelling examination of love and loss in all
their guises.’
*Australian Book Review*
‘Cherry Beach, an impressive debut from Melbourne author Laura
McPhee-Browne, is not afraid to present unadulterated queer
womanhood in a manner Australian audiences may not often encounter
in their local fiction…Lusciously evocative prose…Another queer
woman hero to add to the slim but beloved catalogue scrounged from
Australian literature’s meagre offerings.’
*Meanjin*
'Its power lies in the intimate moments between lifelong friends
Ness and Hetty…Readers feel the full force of the relationship
between these two women: an inescapable bond coloured by unrequited
desire.’
*Broadsheet*
‘A beautiful and compulsively readable novel about friendship and
desire.’
*Alice Cottrell, Kill Your Darlings*
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