The Body in the Clouds

Praise for A Hundred Small Lessons:
Praise for The Body in the Clouds:

"Exquisite...a rich, meditative novel that explores the connectivity of people living in the same geographical space across the distance of time. Through a series of satisfying, recurrent metaphors, Hay weaves her characters' stories closer, offering an allegory for the commonality of human experience. Her deft touch means that these connections are never forced; rather, they give the feel of a memory, a half-waking dream...Hay's elegant prose draws warm and textured portraits...from the first aboriginal inhabitants through the early British settlers and into the tumult of modern urban life. Within that sprawl, Hay discovers beauty."-- "New York Times Book Review"

Praise for The Railwayman's Wife:

"Exquisitely written and deeply felt, The Railwayman's Wife is limpid and deep as the rock pools on the coastline beloved by this book's characters and just as teeming with vibrant life. Ashley Hay's novel of love and pain is a true book of wonders."--Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Secret Chord

"A Hundred Small Lessons explores notions of home, family, identity, creativity, aging and our relationship with cities and the natural world....Hay explores the ways in which we inhabit spaces: building homes and filling them with our possessions, dreams, regrets, fears and secrets. This graceful novel, with its unflinching approach to reality and its gentle undercurrents of sadness, nostalgia and hope, is a highly recommended read for fans of literary fiction."-- "Books + Publishing (Australia), five stars"
"The Railwayman's Wife uses beautiful prose and empathetic characters to tell a story of both hope and heartache."-- "BookPage"
"Hay handles the delicate progress of Ani's return to the world with sympathy and toughness; she is an author in whom intellectual scope and empathetic imagination are not separate activities but two sides of the same coin.... recalls the sour-sweet best of Michael Ondaatje's fiction. Another author, Ford Madox Ford, began his The Good Soldier by claiming, 'This is the saddest story.' It isn't. That title rightly belongs to The Railwayman's Wife."-- "The Australian"
"The Railwayman's Wife is a beautifully attentive study of what comes after - after a funeral, after a war - and Ashley Hay is a wise and gracious guide through this fascinating territory. This is a book in which grief and love are so entwined they make a new and wonderful kind of sense."--Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest
"The Railwayman's Wife is a fine evocation of place and time - a vivid love letter to a particular corner of post-war Australia. Ashley Hay writes with subtle insight about grief and loss and the heart's voyage through and beyond them. It's a lovely, absorbing, and uplifting read."--M.L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans