The debut novel from Rozie Kelly – shortlisted for this year’s Women’s prize for fiction – charts an unusual relationship between two writers. The story is told through the eyes of an unnamed man who works as a creative writing academic. He becomes infatuated with an Irish woman, whom he calls “the poet”, 17 years older than him and a celebrated author. The pair begin meeting for lunch on a bench by a river where they talk and watch the wildlife (she specialises in stories about birds). He observes how this woman “smells like jasmine. No, not exactly. She smelled like the earth beneath a jasmine pot on a hot day.”
Our protagonist pursues her – his early thoughts about her are wilfully crude – despite being in a long-term relationship with Michael, a gym owner with whom he has little in common. He longs to achieve the success that the poet has attained, observing: “She was in high demand. I was a beggar. I knew she had a purse full of gold, if only I could get close enough to cut the strings.”
