This is most certainly a book full of love.

The love of surfing. The power of a wave. The power of a body with a wave. The love of and for the ocean and its unyielding power to both break and heal.

The love between a step-father and step-daughter. The relationship between Neika and Sean truly grounds this book. One of the most beautiful I’ve read recently.

The love of knowledge. Of exploring and expanding one’s mind. Of reflection and understanding. Of questioning.

The evolution toward self-love amongst grief and trauma.

But the most potent example of love, is the one for Tasmania and Bruny that just leaps from the pages. The effervescent language that depicts the land and the environment is enchanting and fresh. Windswept and gracious. Full of gratitude and awe.

A truly luscious and cosy read (full of all the important things) for August that I absolutely adored.

I had little doubt that a coming of age novel set in Tasmania, predominantly Bruny Island (my happy place), would be right up my street. But this was so much more and damn it was good!

A CATALOGUE OF LOVE by Erin Hortle is about 20-something year old surfer and scientist Neika’s tracing of her life, a cataloguing of her experiences and moments both big and small, good and bad. It’s a beautiful blending of the scientific and the emotional - the mind and the heart - as Neika makes sense of the world and herself with the help of nature.

The more I think about this book, the more I find to love about it - the simultaneous meandering and propulsive structure, the little fascinating details (such as Neika’s PhD topic of how non-human love and grief shapes an ecosystem in an age of mass extinction), the writing of the wild Tasmanian land, waters and environment - I lapped it all up!

If nature writing, superb writing of complex relationships and richly drawn characters are your jam - this one is for you.

Australian writers are absolutely smashing it out of the park these days and I love to see it!