Life in Ten Houses: Penguin Special

Sonya Hartnett

Life in Ten Houses: Penguin Special
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Penguin Books Australia
Country
Australia
Published
22 May 2013
Pages
72
ISBN
9780143569664

Life in Ten Houses: Penguin Special

Sonya Hartnett

The internationally celebrated writer Sonya Hartnett is firmly Melburnian but has restlessly moved from suburb to suburb in her search for the ‘Last House’ - that special corner of the world in which to settle and find contentment. Viewing her life and work through the lens of real estate, she vividly recalls the places she has passed through on her way to finding home.

Expanding on her 2010 Redmond Barry lecture, this short memoir is a beautifully atmospheric exploration of the idea of home and what it means to be a writer in a City of Literature.

Review

Coming in at just over 70 pages, this latest addition to the Penguin Specials range is an evocative glimpse into a writer’s life.

Sonya Hartnett’s has been a rather peripatetic one, having lived in ten houses over the last ten or so years. As I’m someone who’s only lived in three over the last 40 years, Hartnett’s quest for the place that she’ll live in forever struck me as bold and a little bit unsettling. When Hartnett makes a mistake in her choice of abode, she moves on and thinks hang the consequences. It goes without saying that she’s become somewhat of a real estate expert.

Hartnett also recounts how each house, except for one, has been the place in which she has produced one of her works, and how the area or residence provided certain touchstones. The house in Of a Boy – one of my favourite works of hers – for instance, was in Box Hill (I don’t know why but I always thought it was in Adelaide).

It won’t take you long to read this short, engrossing memoir, but I can assure you that it will give you a lot of pleasure.


Mark Rubbo

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