Authors Bio, not available
"Set to be the most talked-about Australian novel since Christos
Tsiolkas's The Slap, McGregor's domestic saga offers a cutting take
on the larger cultural and political forces at play during the
Howard era...McGregor proves her talent with this wildly
contemporary, fast-paced novel, turning the story of one woman's
personal transformation into a savage critique of our times."
--AEU News "The best domestic novels use characters in a specific
family or social setting to reflect and explore the values and
issues of a particular time and place. Indelible Ink, which follows
the intersecting lives of one Sydney family during the last days of
the Howard era, is such a book--and looks set to be the most
talked-about Australian novel since The Slap."
--Australian Book Review "Readers searching for that rare thing, a
contemporary Australian satire, will find it here."
--Jennifer Byrne, Australian Women's Weekly "Fiona McGregor
presents a refreshing view of life in Australia--specifically
Sydney--that celebrates the doubts, challenges and ordinary
activities and emotions of everyday life."
--Carly Been, Bookseller & Publisher "McGregor is an artist who
appeared and was at the helm of Australian literature's "dirty
realist" moment, and this novel contains similar strengths in
realist narrative. Since then, McGregor's mobility across and
beyond literary forms has shown her creative flexibility, and
Indelible Ink is a challenging and engaging addition to this
oeuvre."
--Canberra Times "This is a terrific "way-we-live-now" novel filled
with anxieties about rising house prices, over-development and
careers and marriages going nowhere. Verdict: absorbing."
--Herald Sun "A brilliant book for mature readers by a remarkable
Australian author, judged by fellow writer Christos Tsiolkas as
"one of our finest". Judge for yourself!"
--Illawarra Mercury "Every now and again a novel just takes your
breath away with its audacity and its perceptive take on life and
the world. Indelible Ink is such a book...Indelible Ink is a
powerful, assured and incredibly mature novel; it is a subtle and
sympathetic portrait of contemporary family life. Few readers will
fail to see reflections of their own lives within its pages. Like
Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap, it will become one of the most
talked-about novels of the year."
--Mark Rubbo, Managing Director of Readings "This is a terrific
"way we live now" novel filled with anxieties about rising house
prices, overdevelopment and careers and marriages going
nowhere."
--Sunday Times "McGregor, through her unusual and compelling use of
language, transforms this family's story into something epic. While
the novel's material is domestic, it is never parochial. Marie King
is not the traditional favoured underdog of Australian literature
and McGregor shows courage in moving away from that old trope
towards an understanding of Australian privilege; as one of Marie's
sons muses, it is easier to "keep the idea of privilege foreign: to
admit it would be to admit that he in turn owed
concessions"...Every Sydneysider who can cope with the familiar
becoming strange should read this book and, when you do, you'll see
that she more than deserves her new moniker."
--Sydney Morning Herald "In Indelible Ink Fiona McGregor
interrogates the mores and values of contemporary Sydney in the
same way that Christos Tsiolkas does for Melbourne in The Slap, or
Jonathan Franzen does for middle America in Freedom. This is social
realism at its blistering best...this utterly original, strangely
charismatic novel boasts complex, compelling characters, incisive
wit and striking observations about the way we live now."
--Jo Case and Chris Flynn, The Age Book of The Year judges'
comments "The most talked-about new Australian novel is Fiona
McGregor's Indelible Ink, a suburban family drama set in Howard-era
Sydney that looks set to become the biggest thing since The
Slap...McGregor deftly handles the subject of the modern appetite
for excess and how it's affecting the world without sacrificing her
characters or story in the process. Ian McEwan: watch out."
--Jo Case, The Big Issue "A terrifically entertaining, deeply
thoughtful read...packed with telling social observations, but
driven by a wonderfully varied cast of characters."
--The Big Issue "Beyond the domestic drama of Indelible Ink--its
tough, yet tender, appreciation of family dynamics, its revelation
of character as an endless war of contradictory impulses fought
within a single human frame--McGregor has set out to exhaustively
catalogue Sydney in all its guises. It is an enterprise
anthropological in reach, drawing on everything from history and
the built environment to gay subculture and the economics of real
estate. Even the melt and drift at its close feels like a nod to
the city's endless droning summers. At 400-odd pages Indelible Ink
is undoubtedly a long novel. But how else could it contain the
richest and most complete evocation of Sydney since Patrick White's
The Vivisector?"
--Geordie Williamson, The Monthly "McGregor's writing is subtle and
beautiful, alive with imagery but never self-conscious or
heavy-handed. Meaning grows on the reader almost imperceptibly, the
quiet beauty of the prose as soft and gentle as a rose petal. But
there are spikes too, made all the more sharper by contrast:
moments of lust, fear, fury that catch the reader by surprise,
their impact deep and long-lasting. In the end, [Indelible Ink's
heroine] Marie King achieves her desire: she will stay etched in my
mind for a long time."
--Sarah Vine, The Times "Sydney writer Fiona McGregor recently
said, "I didn't really feel until I wrote Indelible Ink that I was
a novelist." Let us state firmly McGregor IS a novelist, and her
new book proves she is a talent to watch...Highly recommended."
--The Weekly Review "McGregor's fourth novel is a deft exploration
of how we now live and love."
--Vogue Australia "Witty and sharp, Fiona McGregor's Indelible Ink
uses Marie's identity crisis to examine our changing society."
--Wish Magazine, The Australian "A sharp insight into the class
system that Australia often pretends no longer exists."
--Yen "For a long time now, when people ask me a favourite
Australian author, invariably I think and say Fiona McGregor. There
is a gutsiness, a splendour and command of language and expression
in her writing that thrills me every time I read her. Indelible Ink
is a stunning book, a novel that addresses our world and our time
with an acute and ferocious acumen. There is also tenderness here
and there is wisdom. Marie King, the grandmother who begins to
understand living and courage with her first tattoo, is destined to
become one of the great characters of Australian literature. This
is a superb book by--undeniably now--one of our finest
writers."
--Christos Tsiolkas "Indelible Ink portrays the creative fluidity
in living, even when life itself is ebbing away...It is an
exceptional novel: complex, confronting, richly imagined and
beautifully wrought."
--Debra Adelaide "Indelible Ink is a stunning book, a novel that
addresses our world and our time with an acute and ferocious
acumen. There is also tenderness here and there is wisdom. Marie
King, the grandmother who begins to understand living and courage
with her first tattoo, is destined to become one of the great
characters of Australian literature. This is a superb book
by--undeniably now--one of our finest writers."
--Christos Tsiolkas
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