In Conversation with Gretchen Shirm

Gretchen Shirm will be in conversation with Lucy Neave on her latest book Out of the Woods- Transit Lounge

About Out of the Woods

In the year 2000, an Australian woman travels to the Hague to work as the secretary for an Australian judge. There, she sits through the trial of a former military man who has been charged with war crimes. As the trial proceeds, she is confronted with two conflicting impulses: being deeply affected by the testimony of witnesses, while at the same time plagued by an enduring doubt as to the defendant’s guilt.
Meanwhile, she begins an unexpected romance and friendship, and these relationships help her to understand the stories of extraordinary survival she hears about during the trial. When she is called back to Australia to reckon with her own childhood, she finds she can’t quite leave everything she’s heard behind. Out of the Woods asks what it means to bear witness to the suffering of people who have experienced real tragedy and whether it is possible, afterwards, to resume a normal life.

‘A triumph. Out of the Woods traces the complex lines of complicity and grief — a deeply compelling and humane story about what it means to bear witness. This is a book that looks into your soul.’ Stephanie Bishop

‘This searchingly original novel counters the historical weight of human cruelty with small acts of attention and persistence. Shirm’s empathy and intelligent precision exert a quiet moral authority on every page.’ Delia Falconer

‘a stunning writer’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘Shirm’s use of language is brilliantly inventive’ The Australian

‘Shirm’s writing is crisp and precise and will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Gwendoline Riley and Charlotte Wood.’ The Guardian

About Gretchen Shirm

Gretchen Shirm is the author of Having Cried Wolf, Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room. She was a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist and both her novels Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room were shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Awards. In 2023–2024 she received the BR Whiting Fellowship from Creative Australia. Gretchen’s short fiction has been published in Best Australian Stories, Griffith Review, The Australian, Overland, Meanjin and Southerly. Her literary criticism is published widely, including in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Weekend Australian. Gretchen worked as a public law lawyer for more than a decade and now teaches creative writing.

About Lucy Neave

Lucy Neave is the author of the novels Believe in Me (2021) and Who We Were (shortlisted for the ACT Book of the Year), a Griffith Review prize-winning novella set in a horse hospital in Dubai, and short stories published in Australian and American literary journals. She has spent several years living in the United States: as a Fulbright scholar completing a Master of Fine Arts in Writing; teaching English in universities; and in 2019 as a visiting scholar in the English Department at New York University. She currently works at the ANU in Canberra where she lives with her family.

About the Event
• Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
• Registration is required for this event.
• Accessible parking spaces directly below the Harry Hartog ANU Bookshop are available should you require them. Parking at ANU/Harry Hartog
• If you do not feel well, please refrain from attending this event.
• Disability Access available - please ask in-store.