Isabelle the Navigator

How do we find ourselves when we lose others?

This striking novel from the author of the widely acclaimed cult bestseller Candy explores the life of a young woman as she deals with the deaths of the two important men in her life: her great love Matthew Smith, and her ‘gorgeous, sad father’ Tom Airly.

A lyrical meditation on love, loss, betrayal, disintegration and the passage of time, Isabelle the Navigator charts Isabelle’s inner journey, as well as her actual travels - from childhood in Sydney, to love in the vast spaces off the Western Australian coast, to grief and eventually hope in Paris. This is a portrait of an extraordinarily vital woman that is at once epic and fable, swirling and intensely focused.

‘Isabelle Airly is a triumph of Davies’ poetic imagination . . [a] prodigious talent . . staggering prose’ The Age

‘stunningly beautiful narrative’ The Bulletin

‘it leaves you admiring Davies’s gifts and his desire to take risks.’ The Sydney Morning Herald.