About the Author

Diana Reid is a Sydney-based writer, who graduated from the University of Sydney last year with a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Hons Philosophy)/Laws. In January 2020, her career in theatre was off to a promising start: the musical she co-wrote and produced, 1984! The Musical!, debuted and she was set to direct and write theatre performances around the country and over to the Edinburgh Fringe. When COVID-19 saw the cancellation of global theatre, she decided she’d spend her time in shutdown writing a manuscript. Love & Virtue, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the Indie Awards and the ABA Booksellers Choice Award, longlisted for two ABIA Awards and was the winner of the 2022 MUD Literary Prize. Diana is also a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist for 2022. Her second novel, Seeing Other People, will publish in October 2022.
 

Reviews

‘an absolute cracker, Love & Virtue lobs right into the current moment with a clarifying light. I hope EVERYONE reads this book.’ 
*Helen Garner*

‘I have been chewing on this book for days now. Compelling reading. So well written. Complex. I keep turning it over in my mind and I want to talk about it!’
*Hannah Kent*

‘An extraordinary new voice in Aussie lit.’
*Zoë Foster Blake*

‘Loved it…It’s electrifying’
*Annabel Crabb*

‘Love and Virtue is an accomplished novel - by turns funny and furious, and full of the plangent longing and confusion of early adulthood.’
*The Saturday Paper*

‘Love & Virtue is a formidable debut novel. The writing is punchy and clever, with characters so deeply drawn that they feel like friends and enemies from a former life.’
*The Guardian Australia*

‘I inhaled it…an amazing book’
*Mia Freedman*

‘Reid writes with ferocity and intelligence, and this novel demands attention and commands respect.’
*Sunday Times Magazine*

‘Unputdownable, her rich and resplendent detail distils the Australian campus experience with cutting insight, ultimately leading the audience to contemplate its trenchant central question: are you a good person, or do you just look like one?’
*Law Society Journal*

‘Fans of Sally Rooney will gravitate to this compelling read that centres on feminism, power and sex in the lives of Australian university students.’
*Refinery 29 Australia*

‘Reid is a young author to watch.’
*Marie Claire*

‘Love and Virtue captures the near-erotic thrill of being a young woman, alone and adrift, who finds, in another young woman, an intellectual equal ... Like Elena and Lila in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, a touchstone for Reid, their spark feels charged, given to exploding.’
*Sydney Morning Herald*

‘wonderfully readable prose, offering a nuanced and often very funny portrait of privilege and betrayal that probes complex questions about consent, trust and what it means to be a truly “good” person.’
 
*The West Australian*

‘The prose crackles fiercely, luring readers in with phrases to mull over and taste before devouring the next delicious sentence.’
*Artshub*