Questions about perspective, perception and truth are contemplated and extrapolated in US-based Australian author Ruby J Murray’s multi-faceted, provocative and evocative new novel, The Biographer’s Lover.

With a narrative that alternates between the fictional biography of a brilliant but largely unrecognised artist, Edna Cranmer, and the challenges faced by the unidentified woman commissioned to write it, the novel explores the limitations and assumptions placed on artistically talented women in the past and present.

Set primarily in and around the streets of Geelong, it is also an examination of the ways in which writers and artists mould their works to reflect the sum of their experiences and encounters, rather than merely reflecting the world around them.

When the writer is hired to write Cranmer’s biography, she initially expects it will be just another commission, but as she delves into the life of her subject she uncovers stories the artist’s family wants to keep concealed.

The more her investigations are blocked, the more determined she is to uncover more of the truth about Cranmer.

So convincing is the life Murray has created for Cranmer and the paintings she describes, I found myself undertaking an online search to determine whether the artist was more than a fictional representation of generations of women whose lives have been narrowed by patriarchal privilege.

Reviewed by Maureen Eppen