The Night Guest is a 2013 novel by the Australian author Fiona McFarlane.[1]
| Author | Fiona McFarlane |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Penguin |
Publication date | 21 August 2013 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 304 pp. |
| ISBN | 9781926428550 |
Synopsis
editWidowed Ruth is living a solitary life in her New South Wales beach house when, one night, she believes she is visited by a tiger. The next morning a woman named Frida arrives at the house, stating that she has been sent by the government to help out.
Critical reception
editLucy Sussex, writing in The Sydney Review of Book, noted: "There is subterfuge, smuggling, in the writing of The Night Guest. It imports 'genre' techniques into the genre 'literary'. To achieve the necessary suspension of disbelief, the tiger displays no magic, does not talk. It is depicted with extreme realism...At the heart of this novel, McFarlane is describing a very sad and inevitable situation, one that even the highest in the land properly fear: to be old and helpless, and potentially someone else’s prey. Yet who is the predator: the imaginary beast or the post-colonial haunter? Here is domestic realism, the beach hamlet acutely observed, but with a resident tiger, secrets, lies, and a very banal but nonetheless venal conspiracy."[2]
In The Guardian reviewer Justine Jordan found much to like with the book: "In Fiona McFarlane's impressive debut, widowed Ruth senses a tiger prowling around her isolated New South Wales beach house: a flight of fancy that foreshadows the arrival of a far more dangerous beast. The tropes may not be new, but McFarlane puts them at the service of a powerfully distinctive narrative about identity and memory, the weight of a life and the approach of death...The achievement of McFarlane's book is to demonstrate with such clarity and measured compassion that the mind, in the end, is where all tigers live."[3]
Publishing history
editAfter the novel's initial publication in Australia by Penguin in 2013,[1] it was reprinted as follows:
- Sceptre, UK, 2013 and 2014[4]
- Farrar Straus and Giroux, USA, 2013[5]
- Penguin, Australia 2014[6]
The novel was also translated into Czech in 2013, Polish, Korean, Dutch, Catalan, Italian, German, Chinese and French in 2014, and Russian and Japanese in 2015.[7]
Awards
edit- Barbara Jefferis Award, 2014, joint winner[8]
- Guardian First Book Award, 2014, shortlisted[9]
- New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, 2014, winner[10]
- Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction, 2014, shortlisted[11]
- Stella Prize, 2014, shortlisted[12]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane (Penguin 2013)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ ""Here be tygers: The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane"". The Sydney Review of Books, 8 April 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ ""The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane – review"". The Guardian, 24 January 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ "The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane (Sceptre 2014)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ "The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane (FS&G 2013)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ "The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane (Penguin 2014)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ "Austlit — The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane". Austlit. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ ""Barbara Jefferis Award"". Australian Society of Authors. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ ""Guardian first book award 2014 shortlist covers neurosurgery, China, rural Ireland and more"". The Guardian, 15 November 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ "Winners 2014 NSW Premier's Literary Awards announced TONIGHT". State Library of NSW. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ Shaw, Martin (11 December 2014). "Prime minister's literary intervention makes a sham of peak event". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ "Shortlist 2014". Stella. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2024.