Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader.

Today our guest is Ceridwen Dovey, (KER EH DWIN DOUGH VEE) author of In The Garden Of The Fugitives, published, in America, in May by FSG.

Ceridwen’s previous work includes her debut novel Blood Kin which has been published in fifteen countries and was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 honors list. She next gave us Only The Animals, a collection of short stories. She will publish Writers on Writers: her view of J.M. Coetzee (COAT_SEE) . She lives in Sydney.

In The Garden of The Fugitives is an epistolary work, or at least it appears to be in many ways. It tells a story through letters about two antagonists who have been silent running for 20 years until the one who was shut out begins a tentative overture. His name is Royce. Hers is Vita. Royce is, seemingly, reaching out to discover and share their joint and dark pasts.

Vita’s is both a spatial and a psychological journey, while Royce’s is center for the most part in Pompeii at an archeological dig, where he has followed his longtime unrequited love and what follows is both surprising, extremely unsettling and horribly wrong.

The book in short, describes what happens when we face the consequences of telling stories about ourselves. Much like in Julian Barnes A Sense of an Ending

Enough of my rambling, as I say pretty much every week and welcome Ker eh Dwin to the show.