So it’s with a sense of impending doom that we read on… We know that something went horribly wrong at the Trentham home and that whatever happened spilt the ties between Lily, Eva and her family. This is Melbourne in the 1930s, but the novel opens in 1985 with Lily, an art lecturer, now in middle age, divorced, remarried and with a daughter. While most of ‘the strays’ are artists, Eva’s best friend, Lily joins the group, first at age 8 just for companionship, but then as a housemate when her family circumstances change. The Strays of the title in the debut novel from Australian novelist Emily Bitto are a group of people who gather around artist Evan Trentham, his independently wealthy wife, Helena, and their three daughters: Bea, Eva and Heloise. “The night that followed was a slip down the rabbit hole.”
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