Book Details

So This Is Life

Scenes from a Country Childhood

Anne Manne

In the tradition of classics of Australian childhood, So This is Life is singular, startling, deeply moving and, above all, utterly engrossing.

About this Title

At age seven, after her parents' marriage broke down, Anne Manne travelled with her mother and sisters from Adelaide to the Central Victorian countryside to begin a new life. So This Is Life is a haunting and luminous account told through stories---unexpected moments of epiphany---where meaning, suddenly and sometimes shockingly, reveals itself.

Possessing an astonishingly faithful and vivid memory of the pain, fear and joy of childhood; a sensibility keenly alive to the beauty of the landscape, the fellow-creatureliness of animals and the comedy, tragedy and dignity of the lives of the country folk she grew up among, So This Is Life is about the meaning of kindness, and the desolation of grief.

It depicts worlds as far apart as the faded gentility of former goldfields wealth, and the patriarchal spivvery of the country racetrack. Full of inconsolable pain but also impish humour, these stories sparkle like gems.

About the Author

Anne Manne is a writer and social commentator. A former columnist for The Australian and The Age, she now writes essays on contemporary life for The Monthly magazine. Her works include the Quarterly Essay, 'Love and Money: The Family and the Free Market' and Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children, which was a Walkley award finalist for best non-fiction book.

Book Preview

978-0-522-86704-6