Beautiful, tender and heartwrenching, this book is a deeply moving reflection on friendship, grief, loss and change.
Friends & Dark Shapes follows a group of friends who move into a share house in Redfern, Sydney; in particular, our narrator, who has just lost her father. She begins a journey of self-reflection on how to find a sense of self when everything is changing around her.
Not only does it feel like a love letter to Sydney, but the main character’s changing relationship with the city perfectly reflects how she feels lost in her own life.
Short chapters, which act like vignettes into contemporary life in the aftermath of loss, make for a fast paced and easy read. Yet don’t be fooled by this, because each sentence packs an emotional punch that will stay with you, and dared me to ask myself, who am I in the place I was once so familiar with when everything is changing around me?
The prose flows with a poignant tone, filled with wit and warmth that made me feel like I was catching up with a good friend. It’s touching, and despite the themes of grief and loss explored, there is a sense of charm and lightness to the plot as well. Moments of everyday life are captured with a sharp sense of observation, wit and humour.
A truly unforgettable, raw and emotionally charged piece of Australian fiction that stayed with me long after the final page.
Reviewed by Joshua Hortinela
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kavita Bedford’s a writer with a background working in journalism, anthropology and literature. She was the 2020/21 Westwords Writer in Residence at The Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University. her writing has appeared in Guernica, The Guardian, Griffith Review among others. She was the 2018 Churchill Fellow exploring migrant narratives. She teaches yoga and work in media and global studies in Sydney.
Friends & Dark Shapes is her first novel.
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