Enemy

We learn how to live – how to love, how to connect, how to express ourselves – through our parents. So how does a child process the world with a traumatised Vietnam veteran as their father?

Ruth Clare's father came back from the Vietnam War a changed man: a violent, controlling parent and a dominating partner. In the face of it all, Ruth's mother struggled to stand up for her three children, and then descended into alcoholism once the marriage fell apart. Through a childhood of being constantly on guard, with no one to protect her but herself, Ruth learned to be strong and fierce in the face of fear.

After escaping her difficult upbringing, Ruth went on to have a family of her own. Becoming a parent forced her to confront the way her father had treated her, and to recognise how it had shaped her. Wanting to understand the experiences that had changed her father, she met with other veterans and began learning about the effects of conscription, military training and post-traumatic stress disorder on returned servicemen. The stories Ruth uncovered left her with a surprising empathy for the man who'd caused her so much pain, and renewed her determination to stop the legacy of war passing down to her own children.

Weaving a striking personal narrative with a revelatory exploration of the effects of war, Enemy is a bold, compelling and ultimately triumphant memoir from a hugely impressive new Australian writer.