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Title details for Room for a Stranger by Melanie Cheng - Available

Room for a Stranger

by Melanie Cheng
Taylor Owynns
Audiobook
13 of 13 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
13 of 13 copies available
By the winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction.
Since her sister died, Meg has been on her own. She doesn't mind, not really — not with Atticus, her African grey parrot, to keep her company — but after her house is broken into by a knife-wielding intruder, she decides it might be good to have some company after all. Andy's father has lost his job, and his parents' savings are barely enough to cover his tuition. If he wants to graduate, he'll have to give up his student flat and find a homeshare. Living with an elderly Australian woman is harder than he'd expected, though, and soon he's struggling with more than his studies.
"My god, this was a joy to read. Every year there's an Australian novel everyone endlessly passes around and recommends because they bloody love it so much, and this is going to be 2019's. Room for a Stranger explores the high stakes of quiet moments, reveals the beauty of unlikely connections and shows how the antidote to shame is always compassion. After reading this impossible-to-put-down novel, Melanie Cheng is quickly becoming my favourite Australian writer." BENJAMIN LAW
"Melanie Cheng is an astonishingly deft and incisive writer." CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS
"Room for a Stranger is superb. I can't think of anyone who writes human connection as beautifully as Melanie Cheng." BRAM PRESSER
"A beautifully written novel about how the stories we tell ourselves can get us stuck and how opening our lives to others might jolt us free again. Melanie Cheng offers both razor-sharp insight into the flaws and foibles of ordinary people and a deep warmth and tenderness for them. Room for a Stranger is that rare thing: a novel which stings and soothes all at once." EMILY MAGUIRE
"Melanie Cheng's Room for a Stranger is a touching exploration of an unexpected friendship and how two vulnerable people find the strength to carry on. Cheng examines the complexities of human nature with gentle humour and thoughtful attention to the minutiae of her characters' lives. I could not put this moving, insightful novel down." MIRANDI RIWOE
"A wholly engrossing portrait of two very different people whose collision reminds us that the need for companionship is ultimately what unites us all. With startling humanity and precision, Cheng shows us how complex, contradictory and difficult to define we are. Her characters will linger in your mind like a great open-ended question." FELICITY CASTAGNA
"Cheng's work is polished and affecting." LIFTED BROW

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 1, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781528866354
      • File size: 199485 KB
      • Duration: 06:55:35

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Books+Publishing

      March 27, 2019
      After an attempted home invasion leaves her feeling unsafe, elderly Meg signs on with a homeshare agency: Andy, an international student from Hong Kong who’s come to Melbourne to study biomedicine, will live with Meg in exchange for 10 hours of housework a week. Meg is grateful for the company, although Andy is less sure of his new living arrangement—Meg’s house is full of dust, and Andy can’t help but notice that the old lady doesn’t wash her hands after handling her pet parrot, Atticus. But Meg and Andy soon discover they have more in common than they realise—and their tentative friendship will affect both their lives in unexpected ways. The chapters alternate between the two characters’ perspectives, and Melanie Cheng skilfully weaves together their seemingly disparate experiences—Meg’s memories of her dead sister and complicated relationship with her oldest friend, Andy’s fear of failing his exams and the desperate actions he takes—to create a quiet exploration of loneliness and loss. Those who enjoyed Cheng’s award-winning short story collection Australia Day will recognise similar themes at play here: the casual racism of white Australia, the human need to belong, and the complexity and compromise inherent in family relationships. Room for a Stranger is an impressive and delicately crafted novel from one of Australia’s most talented new voices.

      Carody Culver is a freelance writer and editor and former bookseller. She currently works at the State Library of Queensland

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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