Shortlisted for the 2016 Stella Prize
Internationally acclaimed for her five brilliant novels, Elizabeth Harrower is also the author of a small body of short fiction. A Few Days in the Country brings together for the first time her stories published in Australian journals in the 1960s and 1970s, along with those from her archives—including 'Alice', published for the first time earlier this year in the New Yorker.
Essential reading for Harrower fans, these finely turned pieces show a broader range than the novels, ranging from caustic satires to gentler explorations of friendship.
Elizabeth Harrower was born in Sydney in 1928 and moved to London in 1951. She travelled extensively and began to write fiction. Her first novel Down in the City was published in 1957, and was followed by The Long Prospect a year later. In 1959 she returned to Sydney where she began working for the ABC and as a book reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1960 she published The Catherine Wheel, the story of an Australian law student in London, her only novel not set in Sydney.
The Watch Tower appeared in 1966. No further novels were published until May 2014 when Harrower's 'lost' novel, In Certain Circles, was released. Her work is austere, intelligent, ruthless in its perceptions about men and women. She was admired by many of her contemporaries, including Patrick White and Christina Stead, and is without doubt among the most important writers of the postwar period in Australia.
Elizabeth Harrower died in Sydney on 7 July 2020 at the age of ninety-two.
'Harrower has the disconcerting knack of looking at life and seeing it unadorned.' Australian Financial Review, Best Books of 2015
'Vital, vivid stories by a master storyteller.' Joan London, Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Best Books of 2015
'One has to think hard of a book in which so much pleasure has been wrenched from so much pain. While the skies are overcast here, what happens on the ground is brightly lit, hilariously cast by lashings of irony and overstatement...This is the work of an activist in disguise as an entertainer.' John Freeman, Australian
'Enchanting...That Harrower has, up until recently, been denied a place in the Australian literary canon, is a tragedy—one that can only be remedied by reading her. A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories is a fantastic place to start.' Lip Mag
'Lyrical, insightful and finely tuned.' Otago Daily Times
'The range of stories and styles demonstrates Harrower's extraordinary literary skill...A Few Days in the Country and Other Stories offers no sure-fire formulas, but through its interrogation of characters' psychological motivations it affords a deeper understanding of human behaviour.' Australian Book Review
'[Harrower] reveals an astonishing facility to reveal a world in a few brush strokes.' West Australian
'A Few Days in the Country continues [Harrower's] remarkable literary rejuvenation.' Australian, Best Books of 2015
