Laura McPhee-Browne in conversation with Dinner Party Press

Laura McPhee-Browne's third novel Worry Doll is full of yearning and thunder. It's her sexiest novel yet. After reading at our earliest Naarm salons, Emily Westmoreland chats to Laura McPhee-Browne about her new book and the novels (Cherry Beach and Little Plum) that paved the way.

On an ordinary day, two women meet on a train.

Heloise — the older woman — lives with her boyfriend in Melbourne.

Lacey — the other woman — is from Aotearoa and studies the clouds.

What follows is anything but ordinary, a passionate affair that will consume them both in mismatched and maddening ways.

Propulsive and lyrical, Worry Doll examines desire, memory, and the delusion of love.

We have special ticket pricing for this event: get a drink on arrival or slide in for free. We know life is expensive right now. We want you there.

You don't have to have read the book to attend this event. We'll have copies on sale on the night.

Laura McPhee-Browne is a writer, social worker, and counsellor living in Melbourne on Wurundjeri land. Her short stories have been published widely in Australia. Her first two novels, Cherry Beach (2020) and Little Plum (2023), were published with Text Publishing to critical acclaim.

Dinner Party Press host literary salons; the kinds of conversations you'd have around a dinner table with your best friends after a few bottles of wine. Smart friends, good books, house wine. 

Willows & Wine is a wine bar and bookstore based in West Melbourne.

This event takes place on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People and we pay our respects to elders past and present.