Madeleine Ryan on ‘A Room Called Earth’: First Book Club

‘Conversations can be really dull compared to our inner lives, and I find that fascinating. The book was, for me, a real exploration of that difference.’

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For April that debut is A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan, out now from Scribe Publications.

A Room Called Earth is a brilliant debut novel from a neurodiverse author that explores a young woman’s magical, sensitive, and passionate inner world.

A young woman gets ready to go to a party. She arrives, feels overwhelmed, leaves, and then returns. Minutely attuned to the people who come into her view, and alternating between alienation and profound connection, she is hilarious, self-aware, sometimes acerbic, and always honest.

And by the end of the night, she’s shown us something radical about love, loss, and the need to belong.

First Book Club host Ellen Cregan spoke with Madeleine about the book. Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’.

Further reading:

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of A Room Called Earth in our April books Roundup.

Read Madeleine’s Shelf Reflection on her reading habits and the writing that inspires her.

Buy a copy of the book from Brunswick Bound.

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