A Body of Water

A Body of Water was published thirty years ago, in 1990, and has long been out of print. The writing of the book takes place over a year, and portrays a complete cycle in the writer's life. It begins on her forty-sixth birthday, in a period of emotional inhibition and sterility—she hasn't written for a long time—and also of loneliness—her marriage has broken down, and she is living on her own. By the end of the cycle the narrator has written five short stories, and poems, which are included in the book, alongside thoughts about the writing process, journal entries, excerpts from books she has been reading, spiritual meditations, and finely detailed observations on her friendships and the life around her. The title 'a body of water' could be taken to refer to the book's settings along the Bellarine Peninsula in southern Victoria, with its bays, the outer harbour, and the lighthouse, standing like a sentinel at the entrance to the ocean. It also suggests...