In a cultural environment that is increasingly punitive towards writers who explore the experiences of the marginalised Other, Mark Brandi’s choice to write as a female, homeless ‘junkie,’ in The Rip, may seem foolhardy – or courageous.

Dani is a heroin addict living on the streets of Melbourne with her bull terrier, Sunny, and her friend, Anton. They end up staying in a unit with the evasive, unstable and violent Steve. As Anton gets roped into Steve’s criminal activities, and everyone succumbs to their addictions, Dani wonders about the identity and fate of Maria, the absent owner of the unit.

Dani’s world is profoundly impacted by the kindness and cruelty of ordinary people. She hasn’t anything against ‘normal’ people and, though she knows they wouldn’t want her life, she doesn’t want theirs either. ‘Still,’ she says, ‘it would be better to be in the middle.’

While beautifully mapping the landscape of Dani’s true home – the streets of Melbourne – this story also maps the vast distance between Australia’s haves and have-nots.

This novel’s excellent crafting is evident in its handling of narrative tension. The novel generally avoids sentimentality, reductive simplicity or ‘poverty porn’. Instead, it powerfully argues that, while everyone is responsible for the choices that they make, we’re often not responsible for the choices that are posed to us in the first place.

Ultimately, The Rip asserts literature’s power to help readers and writers imaginatively empathise with others – in this case, with those who are systematically ignored, pitied, feared or reviled by society. It also reminds us how sheer dumb luck plays a huge role in everyone’s life: anyone might get caught in the rip that Anton and Dani struggle to swim against.

Reviewed by H C Gildfind