Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto / A thrilling, irreverent take on the great American road trip

Emily Bitto

Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto – a thrilling, irreverent take on the great American road trip

Like the Great Gatsby - but less romantic and more woke – Wild Abandon follows a lonely outsider finding his place in a late-capitalism world

The 25 best Australian books of 2021

Bec Kavanagh
Thu 7 Oct 2021 17.30 BST

Emily Bitto’s Wild Abandon is a sprawling novel, easy to read, with characters that are generously written and full of life. It is easy to get lost with Will, as he flees the shame of his small-town upbringing and the heartbreak of first love, leaving Australia in search of meaning and release. But from the hedonistic indulgences of New York City to the primal wilds of Littleproud, Ohio, all Will finds beneath the fantasy of the great American road trip are shattered dreams.

 

The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen by Krissy Kneen review – memoir as both fairytale and defiant truth

Kneen weaves a magical and honest story about finding freedom but also about naming the things that shape us

The 25 best Australian books of 2021

Bec Kavanagh
Thu 13 May 2021 18.30 BST

In the centre of a page without adornment, before the opening chapter of the book, a small paragraph might almost be overlooked: “When I was a child my family won the lotto and used the money to move to the middle of nowhere in central Queensland to make fairytale characters of papier-mâché.” It would be an outlandish set-up even for a work of fiction, let alone a memoir, but this small incredible opening is a speck compared to the extraordinary story that unfolds.