The Other Side of the World

In the tradition of The Hours and Revolutionary Road comes a “beautifully written and atmospheric” (Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites) novel set in the 1960s about marriage, motherhood, identity, nostalgia, and the fantasy of home.

The only thing harder than losing home is trying to find it again.

Cambridge, 1963. Charlotte is struggling. With motherhood, with the changes marriage and parenthood bring, with losing the time and energy to paint. Her husband, Henry, cannot face the thought of another English winter. A brochure slipped through the mailbox gives him the answer: “Australia brings out the best in you.”

Charlotte is too worn out to resist, and before she knows it they are travelling to the other side of the world. But upon their arrival in Perth, the southern sun shines a harsh light on the couple and slowly reveals that their new life is not the answer either was hoping for. Charlotte barely recognizes herself in this place where she is no longer a promising young artist, but instead a lonely housewife, venturing into the murky waters of infidelity. Henry, an Anglo-Indian, is slowly ostracized at the university where he teaches poetry. Subtle at first, it soon invades his entire sense of identity.

Trapped by nostalgia, Charlotte and Henry are both left wondering if there is anywhere in this world they truly belong. Which of them will make the attempt to find out? Who will succeed?