Book of the Month: Foreign Country by Marija Peričić

Books in the Brewery is a free casual event combining great beer with good chat and an Aussie novel. Readers and drinkers are invited to take part in a guided conversation with our resident host.

Maylands meetings will be held at 6pm on the second Monday of the month.

Adult readers of all experience are invited to think and talk about books in a safe and encouraging space. Expect to be discussing books from both award-winning Australian authors and new voices from around the country.

About the book: A lyrical work that explores the fallibility of memory and asks if we can ever really know the ones we love or ourselves ...

Estranged sisters—Eva and Elisabeta Novak—have not spoken since Eva’s young daughter, Gracie, was killed in a road accident. More than a decade later, and long after Eva has moved overseas, Elizabeta calls, insisting that Eva return home.

But when Eva arrives at her sister’s house, she discovers that Elizabeta is dead. Eva finds that she has been appointed the executor of Elizabeta’s estate, and as she undertakes the monumental task of clearing out the house, she comes to know her sister again through the objects and documents that she encounters. Through this process, Eva is forced to reckon with their shared history and the possibility that her mind cannot be trusted.

Foreign Country engages with themes of grief and loss, and the instability of memory. The novel explores the difficulty of coming to terms with conflicting accounts of the past and asks how well we ever really know the ones that we love, or our own past selves.

‘‘Deft, haunting and finely paced, Foreign Country is a devastating, engrossing story told with an assured voice. A novel that lingers.’ – Katherine Brabon, author of Cure