Writing is a solitary enterprise that depends on the support of friends, and there are more than can be named here. I thank Tanya Agathocleous for her hospitality and sustaining friendship; Debra Adelaide; Hilary Emmett; Jenny Mann; Tina Lupton; Trisha Pender; and all the wonderful UTS women writers. Special thanks to Guy Ortolano for sharing some of his Vegas stories. And finally, thanks to Danny Fisher for everything, his unfailing love most of all.
About the Author
Kirsten Tranter grew up in Sydney and lived in New York from 1998 to 2006, where she completed a PhD on English Renaissance literature at Rutgers University. She has published fiction, poetry and literary criticism. This is her second novel. She lives in Sydney with her husband and son.
Praise for The Legacy
‘[Kirsten Tranter’s] first novel, The Legacy, shows her to be a novelist with a commanding talent – a tough plain-stylist who can people her fictional world with characters of great vivacity and vigour … Full of suave and stunning evocations of Sydney and Manhattan, this sparkling and spacious novel captures the smell and sap of young people half in love with everyone they’re vividly aware of, and groping to find themselves like the answer to an erotic enigma’
Peter Craven, The Monthly
‘This hypnotic debut from Australian author Tranter pays homage to Henry James’s A Portrait of a Lady while offering a suspenseful story line worthy of Patricia Highsmith … While Tranter’s sedate pacing avoids typical thriller antics and conventional crime plot twists, she raises some wickedly keen questions about art world wheeling and dealing’
Publishers Weekly
‘An intelligent and engaging novel that is dense, intricate, detailed, acutely observed, and beautifully written in a voice that is measured and consistent from start to finish.’
Debra Adelaide, author of The Household Guide to Dying
‘The Legacy never lacks self-assurance or narrative drive’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘[Tranter is] an innovative revisionist unafraid of challenge and more than up for the risks, tempering the satisfaction of the known with the surprises of the new … The Legacy is an entertaining literary thriller that skilfully describes the almost pleasurable pain of love and life denied’
Weekend Australian
‘the journey through this nuanced and assured first novel is a compelling one’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Tranter’s characters are well-written, her prose sophisticated and rich (but never heavy handed, despite many literary references), and self-conscious in the right moments so that it never dips into cliché’
Australian Bookseller + Publisher
‘Tranter’s novel is an assured, complex and beautifully crafted work with a measured and restrained tone that is lyrical and never cloying’
Courier Mail
‘Beautifully written. You will be immersed in the story from a couple of pages in’
Daily Telegraph
‘You can’t/won’t put it down. Riveting’
Woman’s Day
‘Fully realised, fascinating characters inhabit a rarefied world split between Sydney’s upmarket North Shore and the New York art scene. An elegantly written exploration of love, art, loss and grief, this is one of those books whose world you miss once you’ve turned the final page’
Who Weekly
‘Tranter makes her splendid debut with this novel about friendship, love, abuse and deceit … rich and luxurious as heavy, expensive brocade … a goldmine of literary references’
Kirkus Reviews
‘Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady is reworked as a seductive contemporary literary thriller, balancing the flamboyant art scene of New York with cool, urban Sydney … a knowing, classy debut’
The Guardian
‘Part love story, part psychological thriller, this brilliantly written and captivating debut heralds a bright new talent’
The Mirror
‘A sophisticated work of fiction, introducing a formidable new Australian writer. Her themes ruminate on art and representation, memory, grief and desire … Tranter evokes brilliantly the heady pace of New York’
The Age
Copyright
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2012
This edition published in 2012
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Kirsten Tranter 2012
The right of Kirsten Tranter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 0627, New Zealand
A 53, Sector 57, Noida, UP, India
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, USA
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Tranter, Kirsten.
A common loss/Kirsten Tranter
ISBN 978 0 7322 9082 5 (pbk.)
ISBN 978 0 7304 9770 7 (epub)
A823.3
Cover design by Priscilla Nielsen
Cover image by George Diebold / Getty Images
A Common Loss Page 32