The Pure Weight of the Heart

Description

An ambitious first novel set in Britain, America and Australia, about life in the fast lane by an outstanding new Australian woman novelist. This is an intense, exhibitionist expose of late 20th century decadence viewed through the eyes of a damaged heroine. It has an international background with the action taking place in the heightened world of big deals, shady money, extravagant living and sexual excess familiar to readers of Tom Wolfe and Jay McInerney. After her wealthy father dies, 10 year old Angelica is all but abandoned by her mother who remarries. Lonely and disillusioned, she grows up to drift from 1 unhappy relationship to another. Eventually, in the midst of the corrupt social millieu that she both despises and desires, she finds love and puts to rest the ghosts of her beloved father and unhappy childhood. Gambotto's strength lies in her sharp eye for satire - be it within the London literary set or the world of well heeled Sydney matrons - her merciless pillorying of weak or foolish characters, her ear for the absurdities of social dialogue. It's an extremely strong and ambitious debut from a new chronicler of our age.