I loved the octogenarian main protagonist of Elsie and the darkly funny start to the book. Her heartbreaking history surprised me, as did the revelations at the end of the novel. This was my first Sally Hepworth read but won't be my last. Elsie is an 81-year-old living in a Melbourne suburb, grumbling and mainly keeping to herself, aside from her best friend since childhood, a persistent 7-year-old girl who's determined to befriend her, and Peter, a kind young man across the

Powers's novel is an exploration of the wonders of the ocean and also of the capacity of the human mind and imagination. The marching toward destruction of both of these makes for a nerve-racking, heartbreaking story. Playground 's final section held surprises I did not anticipate, and their exposure colors the entirety of the story that precedes them. We make things that we hope will be bigger than us, and then we’re desolate when that’s what they become. Four people are con