REVIEWS
‘The golden book’ by Kate Ryan
READINGS
‘The Golden Book is a quietly beautiful debut from Kate Ryan that asks profound questions about responsibility, blame and, ultimately, love … [This] is an exquisite and deeply resonant literary novel that captures the nostalgia of youth.’
CHERYL AKLE, THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
‘An exquisite study of the liminal space between words and acts, and the necessary redrafting of our life stories. This is a golden book.’
MYFANWY JONES, AUTHOR OF LEAP
‘A gorgeous evocation of the wildness of youth, and of what it takes to find love after disaster. Kate Ryan writes from the heart. Earthy, lovely, and profound. A beautiful, resonant book.’
PEGGY FREW, AUTHOR OF ISLANDS
‘Kate Ryan has constructed a superb literary novel, but one that is also written in an absorbing, immersive prose. The storytelling is direct and often visceral, concerned with telling the truth of the human condition … An assured debut from a writer who has honed her craft and written something genuine and true.’
CHRIS SALIBA, NORTH MELBOURNE BOOKS
‘[The Golden Book] is a tightly woven and compelling story about the incorruptibility of childhood friendships, the bitterness of teenage rivalry and the impact of childhood trauma as it unfurls over time … Ryan reveals Ali’s past with tantalising slowness, expertly interspersing Ali’s adult life with visceral memories from her childhood . . . The Golden Book is the rare novel you will want to read in one session and not put down.’
RAPHAELLE RACE, THE BIG ISSUE
‘The Golden Book is an original, ambitious and engaging debut. Ryan shows her writerly virtuoso in the sophisticated way she tells this story, ultimately offering readers insights into the nature of power, memory and forgetting, and the nature of ambivalence — ‘the safety and the sinking’ — that characterises all intimate relationships.’
H C GILDFIND, GOOD READING, STARRED REVIEW
‘[An] accomplished début … The Golden Book moves seamlessly across time. Ryan’s language is direct and unshowy; she paces the story with admirable restraint … The result is a thoughtful and unassuming novel that raises questions about guilt, blame and the fickleness of memory.’
POLLY SIMONS, AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
‘[The Golden Book] is strongly grounded in disquieting ideas about the relationship between writing and truth.’
KERRYN GOLDSWORTHY, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD