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'All night Audrey woke again and again, and every so often Nick would be awake, too, and their bodies would shift into new shapes, and once Nick reached for her as if in a panic, and once Audrey thumped to the kitchen half-awake and stuck her head under the tap to drink, and once she turned over to face Nick, who was open-eyed, and they began to kiss in a dream, bodies just coming to, and she saw the dull shadows from the streetlights pass over his face as he came, and he covered her body with his and she felt his breath in her hair, and they held each other, and the whole time they never said a thing.
'Audrey, Katy and Adam have been friends since high school—a decade of sneaky cigarettes, drunken misadventures on Melbourne backstreets, heart-to-hearts, in-jokes.
'But now Katy has gone. And without her, Audrey is thrown off balance: everything she thought she knew, everything she believed was true, is bent out of shape.
Audrey’s family—her neurotic mother, her wayward teenage brother, her uptight suburban sister—are likely to fall apart. Her boyfriend, Nick, tries to hold their relationship together. And Audrey, caught in the middle, needs to find a reason to keep going when everything around her suddenly seems wrong.
'Evocative and exquisitely written, Our Magic Hour is a story of love, loss and discovery. Jennifer Down’s remarkable debut novel captures that moment when being young and invincible gives way to being open and vulnerable, when one terrible act changes a life forever.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: For my parents, and for Sophie and Lilly.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
What I’m Reading
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017; -
Meet Jennifer Down, Author of Our Magic Hour
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: Seizure [Online] , June 2016; -
June in Fiction
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , June 2016;
— Review of The Natural Way of Things 2015 single work novel ; What the Light Hides 2016 single work novel ; Our Magic Hour 2016 single work novel -
Mourning in Contrasting Milieus
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 May 2016; (p. 20)
— Review of Our Magic Hour 2016 single work novel ; Sing Fox to Me 2016 single work novel -
Rainbow
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 380 2016; (p. 39)
— Review of Our Magic Hour 2016 single work novel
-
The Year of Living Despairingly
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2-3 April 2016; (p. 26) The Saturday Age , 2-3 April 2016; (p. 26)
— Review of Our Magic Hour 2016 single work novel -
Rainbow
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 380 2016; (p. 39)
— Review of Our Magic Hour 2016 single work novel -
Mourning in Contrasting Milieus
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 May 2016; (p. 20)
— Review of Our Magic Hour 2016 single work novel ; Sing Fox to Me 2016 single work novel -
June in Fiction
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , June 2016;
— Review of The Natural Way of Things 2015 single work novel ; What the Light Hides 2016 single work novel ; Our Magic Hour 2016 single work novel -
Meet Jennifer Down, Author of Our Magic Hour
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: Seizure [Online] , June 2016; -
What I’m Reading
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
Awards
- 2018 longlisted Kibble Literary Awards — Nita May Dobbie Award
- 2017 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2017 joint winner The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year
- 2017 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
- 2017 highly commended Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
- Melbourne, Victoria,