Infinite Splendours

Book excerpt: The incandescent new novel from the acclaimed Miles Franklin winner author of The Eye of the Sheep and The Choke. WINNER OF THE 2021 COLIN RODERICK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD Lawrence Loman is a bright, caring, curious boy with a gift for painting. He lives at home with his mother and younger brother, and the future is laid out before him, full of promise. But when he is ten, an experience of betrayal takes it all away, and Lawrence is left to deal with the devastating aftermath. As he grows into a man, how will he make sense of what he has suffered? He cannot rewrite history, but must he be condemned to repeat it? Lawrence finds meaning in the best way he knows. By surrendering himself to art and nature, he creates beauty - beauty made all the more astonishing and soulful for the deprivation that gives rise to it. Infinite Splendours is an extraordinary novel, incandescent with love and compassion, rich in colour and character. The power and virtuosity of Laguna's writing make it impossible for us to look away; by being seen, Lawrence is redeemed. And we, as readers, have had our minds and hearts opened in ways we can't forget. ' deserves to stand beside David Malouf's Harland's Half Acre or Michelle de Kretser's The Lost Dog in that slender collection of brilliant Australian novels about art' - The Weekend Australian