‘Lola in the Mirror’ by Trent Dalton
What if you lived without a name? What if it was dangerous for you to recall or retell a minute of your past? When someone asks your name, how do you answer? What do you say when nothing – a void – fills where the answer should be? This is life for Liv-ByTheRiver or Di-ByTheRiver.
A young woman on the run – on the lam with her Mum, running and not stopping for all her eighteen years…until it all changes on the banks of the Brisbane River. In an orange HiAce van with four flat tyres on Moon Street amongst other wrecker’s cars called ‘Oz’. Houseless, not homeless, together with Roslyn, Serge & Samantha, June, Sully and her best friend Charlie. It doesn’t take long for an entanglement with the local drug lords and Lady Flo to entrap them in a web of danger.
I have read Trent Dalton’s previous novels from Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies, along with his short story collection Love Stories. He never ceases to amaze me with his depths of intricate storytelling that rounds up all the details to a profound ending that leaves you calling for an encore! He has a way of dreaming up characters that leave an imprint on your mind and soul.
In the case of Lola In The Mirror, Trent Dalton explores the ‘normality’, stark realities and relentless fear that those in the houseless communities live with. Making a home in amongst unusable discards and the friendships they forge. The reasons they’re there are confronting and whilst it is not comfortable reading, you believe in the characters with understanding.
“Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what’s my future? What’s my past?”
Big, bold, heart-breaking, hopeful – full of love, danger and audacious courage …this makes Lola In The Mirror my number one top read for 2023 and why Trent Dalton will continue to be a well-deserved award winning storyteller.
Available in store and online.
Harper Collins Australia
ISBN 9781460759837
