Nick: so persuasive, ever the optimist, still boyishly handsome. Always on a quest to spin straw into gold, to heal wounded souls.
The conversion was his idea, but it’s Zoe who’s here now, in a valley of old coalmines and new vineyards, working out how to live in a deconsecrated church.
What to do with the altar, all those memorial plaques and the stained-glass windows?
Alone, and troubled by a restless ghost, Zoe is stuck in purgatory—until a young teacher named Melanie barges into her life.
Amanda Lohrey’s The Conversion is a startling and seductive novel about how the homes we live in shape us. Like the bestselling The Labyrinth, it is distinguished by its clear-eyed intelligence, instinct for drama, and effortless readability.
About the Author :
Amanda Lohrey lives in Tasmania and writes fiction and non-fiction. She has taught at the University of Tasmania, the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Queensland. Amanda is a regular contributor to the Monthly magazine and a former senior fellow of the Australia Council’s Literature Board. She received the 2012 Patrick White Award. The Labyrinth (2021), her eighth work of fiction, won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, a Prime Minister’s Literary Award, a Tasmanian Literary Award and the Voss Literary Prize.
Review :
‘Written in Lohrey’s familiar economical prose and exhibiting a fascination with the space we inhabit, The Conversion is an absorbing fiction of dealing with people and events from the past, and finding a way into the future.’
‘Buy this one. [Amanda Lohrey’s] brilliant.’
‘One of the things Lohrey does is to take quite portentious, serious things and put them in ordinary contexts and see if they work, see what they mean when you put them in that setting.’
‘We see [Lohrey’s] interest in place, in buildings, in physical spaces, but also in therapy and psychiatry…I really enjoy what Amanda Lohrey has done by keeping us guessing in this novel.’
‘Lohrey makes writing look effortless: every sentence is a pleasure to read. Her characters immediately come alive on the page...The Conversion is a beautifully written, quietly profound novel that explores purgatories of the past and present as its characters move between and meditate on structural and personal conversion.’
‘Astonishing and beguiling.’
'The Conversion delves into what it means to change one thing into another thing, exploring ideas of conversion that range from everyday renovation to the allure of religious cults and the meaning of our ever-updating culture.’
‘The Conversion is filled with intrusions, insistence, and ghosts…In this blazing, layered, bravura novel, Lohrey probes the dreamed, remembered, and hoped-for in an anatomy of freedom and aftermath.’
‘The Conversion takes on a dreamy tone to explore the complexities of love, loss, family and home…The process of grief is rarely logical and straightforward, and in reflecting this, the book holds true.’
‘Lohrey delves into grief-induced purgatory and the meaning of home, especially in times of upheaval.’
‘The Conversion is both highly readable and deeply thoughtful. Come for the real estate and stay for the revelations about what our built environments—both the sacred and the secular—say about who we are.’
‘This is what Lohrey does best: she seeks to appreciate the internal ponderings of many and then to package them into a compassionate story, using characters that are finely attuned to our own meandering thoughts…This novel is perfect for long-term fans and alos for readers of Ann Patchett and Alice Munro. Their ability to record every day ordinariness is what makes these writers extraordinary. Read The Conversion to be still, and to marvel.’
‘Lohrey delves into the places we call home, exploring the intricate dance between our influence on them and their transformative impact on us.’
‘A gentle meditation on grief, space and the idea of belonging.’
‘An incisive commentary on contemporary material, social and cultural values.’
‘The distinctive depth of characterisation shines in this tightly knitted story.’
‘Lohrey revisits the terrain of her Miles Franklin Award-winning The Labyrinth to create another meditative and rewarding read.’
‘Beautifully written.’
