Tess

By Kirsten McDougall

In the silence she could hear the oncoming hum, like a large flock approaching. She didn't want to hear his story; she'd had enough of them. Tess is on the run when she's picked up from the side of the road by lonely middle-aged father Lewis Rose. With reluctance, she's drawn into his family troubles and comes to know a life she never had. Set in Masterton at the turn of the millennium, Tess is a gothic love story about the ties that bind and tear a family apart. "I love novels about amelioration, about people trying to mend things and fix themselves. Kirsten McDougall's brave and brilliant Tess is one of these. A novel of tender observation and deftly judged suspense, Tess imagines what it might mean for someone to really know what goes on inside others" —Elizabeth Knox

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781776561384

Kirsten McDougall

Kirsten McDougall is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer and creative writing lecturer. Her 2017 novella Tess was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards and shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Book preview

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