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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'On her first day of school, Lily Struthers meets Eva, one of the daughters of the infamous avant-garde artist Evan Trentham. He and his wife are attempting to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930s Australia by inviting other like-minded artists to live and work with them at their family home. As Lily’s friendship with Eva grows, she becomes infatuated with this artist colony, longing to truly belong to this makeshift family.
'Looking back on those years later in life, Lily realises that this utopian circle involved the same themes as Evan Trentham’s art: Faustian bargains and terrible recompense; spectacular fortunes and falls from grace. Yet it was not Evan, nor the other artists he gathered around him, but his own daughters, who paid the debt that was owing.
'The Strays is an engrossing story of ambition, sacrifice and compromised loyalties from an exciting new talent.'
Source: Publisher's blurb. (Sighted: 30/1/2014)
Notes
-
Epigraph:
'To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame,
to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life'
– Walter Pater
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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y
At Home with Emily Bitto
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
Melbourne
:
Bad Producer Productions
,
2021
23443379
2021
single work
podcast
interview
'Emily Bitto is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her debut novel, The Strays, was the winner of the 2015 Stella Prize, and in 2021 she released her second novel, Wild Abandon.
'Her fiction, poetry and non-fiction has appeared in various publications, including Meanjin, The Age, the Monthly, the Saturday Paper, The Big Issue, and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is also the co-owner of Carlton wine bar Heartattack and Vine.' (Production summary)
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Neglectful Bohemians
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 8 January 2017; (p. 18)
— Review of The Strays 2014 single work novel '“Family,” Helena Trentham asserts early in the Australian writer Emily Bitto’s remarkable first novel, “should be the people you choose to surround yourself with, not the people you happen to be related to.” The wife of an avant-garde painter and the mother of three daughters living in 1930s Melbourne, Helena has therefore constructed a “big, noisy, quicksilver” community of artists, all working and living together in a ramshackle house. But she fails to consider how this seemingly charmed bohemian life is affecting her own children, neglected and nudged to the periphery.' (Introduction) -
This Is Not a Memoir: the C-word in Women’s Writing
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , September 2016; - y The Strays by Emily Bitto Melbourne : CAE Book Group , 2015 9463832 2015 single work criticism
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The Strays Wins the Stella, Shortlisted for the Dobbie
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , July vol. 95 no. 1 2015; (p. 7)
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[Untitled]
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , February vol. 93 no. 3 2014; (p. 20)
— Review of The Strays 2014 single work novel -
Review : The Strays
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 361 2014; (p. 52)
— Review of The Strays 2014 single work novel -
Painting a Vivid Picture of Friendship
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 14 June 2014; (p. 19)
— Review of The Strays 2014 single work novel 'A city's rick art history provided the inspiration for Emily Bitto's debut novel...' -
A Picture of Loneliness at the Dark Heart of Art
Eloquent Portrait of a Destructive Artist
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 June 2014; (p. 35) The Age , 21 June 2014; (p. 35) The Canberra Times , 21 June 2014; (p. 23)
— Review of The Strays 2014 single work novel -
Well Read
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 21 June 2014; (p. 25)
— Review of The Strays 2014 single work novel ; Currawong Manor 2014 single work novel -
Artistic Licence
2014
single work
interview
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , February vol. 93 no. 3 2014; (p. 24) -
Stella Prize 2015: The Shortlisted Authors on the Stories behind Their Books
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 April 2015; -
Winning Debut for Emily Bitto’s ‘Original, Engaging’ Novel
Debut Novel Proves a Stella Effort for Young Writer;
Bitto's Stella Performance Proves a Winning Debut
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 22 April 2015; (p. 10) The Canberra Times , 22 April 2015; (p. 8) The Age , 22 April 2015; (p. 12) -
Debut Effort Proves a Stella Performance
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 22 April 2015; (p. 3) -
Emily Bitto Wins 2015 Stella Prize for Her Debut Novel, The Strays
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 21 April 2015;
Awards
- 2016 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2015 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- 2015 shortlisted Kibble Literary Awards — Nita May Dobbie Award
- 2015 winner The Stella Prize
- 2015 shortlisted Indie Awards — Debut Fiction