Holly Throsby is a songwriter, musician and novelist from Sydney, Australia. She has released five solo albums, a collection of original children's songs, an album as part of the band Seeker Lover Keeper, and has been nominated for four ARIAs. Holly's debut novel, Goodwood (2016), was a critically acclaimed bestseller, shortlisted for the Indie and ABIA awards as well as the Davitt and Ned Kelly awards.
'The kind of big-hearted, emotionally bruising story that reminds
you why you love fiction... Goodwood is many things: a satisfying
and conscientiously constructed mystery, an affectionate but
clear-eyed portrait of a time and a place, and a darkly lovely
coming of age story. But most of all, it's a complete revelation,
the conjuring up of a sad, beautiful, indelible little world of its
own.'
- THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
'It has been a while since I lost a weekend to a debut
novel...There is so much to enjoy about this book; my tip is that
it will become a firm book club favourite. ★★★★★' - GOOD READING
MAGAZINE
'So finely observed...with laconic wit...a nuanced portrayal of
hidden truths in tight knit communities.★★★★☆ ' - BOOKS &
PUBLISHING
'Goddamn brilliant. This funny-sad mystery about growing up,
missing persons and dark truths about your neighbourhood will
gently, gorgeously demolish you.' - BENJAMIN LAW
'Goodwood is gripping, moving, often funny and written with a sure
ear for Australian country-town vernacular. Very good.' - MARK
COLVIN (on Twitter)
'Stunning...a distinctly Australian coming-of-age story...balancing
carefully evoked dread with genuine warmth, it's an assured and
singular debut' - THE BIG ISSUE
'Lyrical without being abstruse, colloquial without being
contrived. Her characters, while familiar, are nuanced and
authentic, and her depiction of small-town life is bang-on in both
its endearing and suffocating ways... the close-knit cast of
characters, the power of gossip as currency, even small
details...all ring remarkably true.' - READINGS MONTHLY
'A little bit Twin Peaks and a little bit Picnic at Hanging Rock,
Goodwood is a terrific, thoroughly Australian novel... [Throsby]
proves she has yet another string to her extraordinary creative
bow' - WOMEN'S WEEKLY
'[Goodwood's] quiet dreamy pace is undercut by a dark sense of
foreboding... strong and captivating... the tale's country setting
[is] so vividly brought to life' - VOGUE
'Throsby proves herself as a deft hand at literary prose as the
world she builds around her teenage narrator in this book is so
vivid it can occasionally feel more like fact than fiction...
Goodwood is wonderfully lush and well-realised... The intrigue
slowly builds to the point where the urge to learn the truth about
the disappear¬ances becomes overwhelming. The ending does not
disappoint.' - THE AUSTRALIAN
'A lyrical, rolling ballad of a small country town hit with a
one/two punch of grief and a one/two punch of burgeoning sexuality
for the story's narrator, seventeen year old, Jean Brown. The
characters are rich and myriad, from family and friends,
neighbours, shopkeepers and barflies. All are beautifully
realised...Refrain and reprise are used brilliantly in a
composition that's rich in rhythm with a melodic tone conceived
from a keen imagination, an observant eye and a fine ear for idiom
and the colloquial.' - SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE
'The portrait of small town life is given a deep richness by
Throsby, in this her first novel, presenting a very readable,
enjoyable, quirky, slightly wry look at the many, many characters
you will find in any town, on any given day, pretty much anywhere
in the world, let alone Goodwood, somewhere in Australia.' - BLUE
WOLF REVIEWS
'Even as Throsby ratchets up the fear factor, she writes with an
observant, gentle humour, displaying an awareness and affection for
tiny-town idiosyncrasies. Despite the dark undertow, Goodwood is
feel-good fiction.' - QANTAS MAGAZINE
'The small town of Goodwood is rocked when two locals disappear in
this chilling, evocative and buzzed-about debut' - WHO WEEKLY
'Goodwood is a sharp, well written and charming novel....Although
the book can be dark in nature...there is a multitude of colour
underlying the paragraphs.' - THE AU REVIEW
'So much truth, so much aching and pain by humour. What a wonderful
book. I can see the Australian novelist continuum from Patrick
White and Thea Astley in her explicit representation of the
character of Australians in regional towns . Others have compared
Throsby with Tim Winton. I hope she is writing another book.' -
LINDY MORRISON in LOUD MOUTH
'The town of Goodwood is so well-created that it almost becomes a
character. The townsfolk... become a kind of single organism, with
the distinctive neuroses, a particular vernacular, and the way the
town collectively navigates between the un-ease caused by the
missing people and the familiarity and domesticity of their daily
lives...The shock of those events is a catalyst here for deeper
explorations of what lurks below the surface and how we create
meaning in our lives in this tender, rich, and deeply enjoyable
book.' - COMPULSIVE READER
'[Goodwood is] very, very readable. I devoured it in a couple of
sittings...thoughtful and authentic...these portraits were
outstandingly done. Top reading indeed.' - FAIR DINKUM CRIME
'The first half of Throsby's book promises a delayed sort of coming
of age story about the ties we share amongst the people living
amongst us, the inescapable interconnectivity of small townships
and the way a death or vanishing sends ripples through a community.
But it is equally an insight into the personal goings-on and
formative queries of protagonist Jean, who must process the central
mystery while also calibrating her sense of reality and emerging
bisexuality... If you put Goodwood side-by-side with some of the
more obvious choices of queer youth canon, it offers an alternative
to the masculinist narratives that have dominated Australian queer
fiction.' - KILL YOUR DARLINGS
'I don't usually recommend fiction but I have just read Holly
Throsby's Goodwood and it is simply the best, gentlest, most
amusing description of life in an Australian country town...It is
subtle, witty, wise... Where, too often, satire and sarcasm are the
usual tools employed to describe rural life, Throsby employs
extraordinary perceptiveness and an attention to detail which
evokes a country town in all its complexity - its closeness, the
familiarity of the locals, the quirkiness of daily rituals and the
essential goodness and decency of the people.' - BRUCE ELDER in a
mail out from AUSSIE TOWNS
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