Anakana Schofield

One of those books that hangs loose in your head, rattled around a bit, then shoots a shaft of light through your heart. The tale is of a woman and her family- she is an unreliable narrator and so fascinating- she is lonely and destroyed by her loneliness but rather than wallow, she takes a sort of mad control of herself and those about her. She does not go quietly.
I loved all the expressions that come out of her mind, “our woman”, and the thoughts. I felt for her as she becomes unhinged, loses the thread. I won’t forget her.
A great read. Like the author’s Martin John, a wee bit disturbing, unsettling. I’m impressed with the author’s ability to dance around madness.… (more)

This is an amazing book. Bina, a 74 year old woman facing serious criminal charges is writing her story on scraps of paper in order to provide warnings to other women. It's a stream of consciousness process. It takes a while to understand what Bina is trying to say; to understand what happened and is happening. But stick with it and you will be richly rewarded.

This book is about compassion for the dying and is a tribute to female friendship; Bina's relationship with Phil is the prime example of that. But the whole concept of the book is a tribute to sisterhood as Bina tries to warn other women and to support them in deciding when they've had enough.

The style provides some challenges but is the perfect way to tell Bina's story.… (more)

This was like a loose end of yarn on a sweater. You pull it and the string just gets longer and longer and the sweater just keeps unravelling until you're left with a pile of tangled string. You're not sure what's real and what's just a figment of a character's imagination. Your face hurts from being scrunched up in reaction to the things you're reading. It was bloody hard work. I can't imagine how hard it was to write.

There's a line in this book, "That's aggressive, but you see this hasn't been an easy book for any of us."

Yes. That.… (more)