Sunbathing

'Sweet and deep, sad and funny - like life.' Peggy Frew, award-winning author

'Isobel Beech writes like a skipping heartbeat; loss carves out her love language.' Mahmood Fazal, Walkley Award-winning writer

Summertime in Italy, fresh vegetables from the garden, taking turns washing dishes, reading to each other, learning about cherry worms. Strange how badly I could punish myself for abandoning you once, then go and do it again.

After weeks of grieving, a woman books a plane ticket, bound for an old villa in the mountains of Abruzzo. Invited to stay with her friends Giulia and Fab - in the weeks before they marry in a village orchard - she lives for a summer in the house's Birthing Room, where generations of women once had their babies.

More often, though, she lives in her head: in the past, trying to make sense of her grief and wondering how to go on, or if she can.

As her inner and outer worlds spar and converge, she passes the time helping with the household chores, walking in the sunshine and plucking fruit from the nearby orchards, all while dwelling on the moments with her father that might have warned her something was wrong.

This spare, stunning novel explores the workings of the self in the wake of devastation and deep regret, and reveals the infinite ways that the everyday offers solace and hope.

Short-listed for Readings New Australian Fiction Prize 2022 (Australia) Long-listed for Best Debut Fiction 2023 (Australia) Long-listed for Indie Book Awards 2023 (Australia)

After her father dies of suicide, the unnamed narrator of Sunbathing travels from her hometown of Melbourne to the Italian countryside. There, she stays with friends Fabrizio and Giulia in Fab's ancestral home as the couple plan their wedding. The days pass gently as the narrator tends the garden, picks fruit, visits flea markets and cares for a stray cat. In between long sun-drenched lunches and walks in the countryside, the narrator begins to recall the moments leading to her father's death and all the little things that, retrospectively, seemed like warning signs. Through rest, contemplation and the quiet support of friends, the narrator slowly learns to move through her grief and embrace life once more. This debut novel-written by Isobel Beech, former senior culture writer at VICE-reads very much like a traditional grief memoir, with its subtle and astute insights into the complexities of the grieving process and use of second person to address the narrator's father. As a novel, however, it is also able to touch on larger cultural subjects, such as the #MeToo movement, white male privilege and social media dependence. Sunbathing is not a book driven by plot or character development, but instead by introspection and the gradual self-actualisation of the narrator, which fuses the sadness and absurdity of life and death through powerful prose and just a touch of dark humour. Chloë Cooper is a freelance writer, bookseller and library assistant in Meanjin.

Isobel Beech is based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia and makes a living as a fiction writer, university copywriter, and freelance editor. Her career has included roles in online media, ads, publishing and more. Sunbathing is her first novel.

A powerful debut that explores life, death and the restorative power of friendship under the warm summer sun of Umbria. 'Sweet and deep, sad and funny - like life.' Peggy Frew, award-winning author 'Isobel Beech writes like a skipping heartbeat; loss carves out her love language.' Mahmood Fazal, Walkley award-winning writer Summertime in Italy, fresh vegetables from the garden, taking turns washing dishes, reading to each other, learning about cherry worms. Strange how badly I could punish myself for abandoning you once, then go and do it again. After weeks of grieving, a woman books a plane ticket bound for an old villa in the mountains of Abruzzo. Invited to stay with her friends Giulia and Fab - in the weeks before they marry in a village orchard - she lives for a summer in the house's Birthing Room, where generations of women once had their babies. More often, though, she lives in her head: in the past, trying to make sense of her grief and wondering how to go on, or if she can. As her inner and outer worlds spar and converge, she passes the time helping with the household chores, walking in the sunshine and plucking fruit from the nearby orchards, all while dwelling on the moments with her father that might have warned her something was wrong. This spare, stunning novel explores the workings of the self in the wake of devastation and deep regret, and reveals the infinite ways that the everyday offers solace and hope.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.