Carrie Tiffany: The Lady With the Dog
About the event
6pm for 6.30pm Monday 26th October Carrie Tiffany in conversation with Kate Grenville A masterful novella about the role of animals in language and life from the award-winning author of Mateship with Birds and Exploded View. The Lady with the Dog is a deeply moving, poetic novella loosely based on the author’s observations of her mother and stepfather in their final months. It centres on a woman living with Alzheimer’s, deeply attached to the dog she’s recently adopted with her devoted but unwell husband. As the woman’s condition worsens, the dog becomes both companion and symbol, anchoring her to the world. The novella transforms real events experienced by Tiffany’s parents during Western Australia’s extended COVID lockdown into a resonant imaginative narrative of memory, love and loss. With whimsical drawings from artist Noel McKenna, The Lady with the Dog is a homage to the exquisite sadness of Chekhov’s famous short story and offers readers an experience of rare emotional clarity and grace. Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. Her first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and won the Dobbie Award for Best First Book and the WA Premier’s Award for Fiction. Her second novel, Mateship with Birds, was the winner of the inaugural Stella Prize and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for fiction. Her third novel, Exploded View, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and won the Queensland Fiction Book Award Kate Grenville is one of Australia's most celebrated writers. Her international bestseller The Secret River was awarded local and overseas prizes and is now a much-loved classic. Grenville's other novels include The Lieutenant, Lilian's Story, the Orange Prize–winner The Idea of Perfection and A Room Made of Leaves. Her works of non-fiction include One Life: My Mother's Story, Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters and, most recently, Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Place.
