The essay, a short literary composition on a theme, generally analytical, speculative, or interpretative, is remarkably popular at present.

For Hastrich, who has had two novels published, the essay became her new writing mode, after allowing herself to ‘lie fallow’ for some months.

As a former camerawoman, she saw the essay as her new frame. She had not realised how much she had missed the action within that frame: Inquiring, ignoring noise and distraction, widening out, zooming in. And moving on.

This series of essays centres on the Central Coast of New South Wales, specifically Brisbane Water. It was there that Hastrich holidayed as a small child with her family and friends, and it is there that she escapes from the city as often as she can. With her trusty battered boat, Squid, she roams the waterways, fishing and exploring, and focusing on what lies beneath the water.

The essay, ‘Night Fishing’, from which the title of the book is taken, is not just about her first foray into the dark, but also about family, life and death. Similarly, her other essays roam the channels of Brisbane Water, but also the lives and writings of great artists, from Goya to Hockney.

There are endearing passages, such as her memory as a small girl of being in a boat at Rileys Bay on Brisbane Water with her father and other children, where she gave ‘swimming lessons to baby bream in the bottom of the boat, steering them up and down’.

Her description in another essay of her German-born grandfather and his new life in Australia, particularly his Broken Heart Welding shop, is affectionate and funny; as is the piece about the Sydney Boat Show. But what shines through all the essays is how Hastrich explores the different parts of herself, to find they do in fact fit together.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville