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Author

Vicki Laveau-Harvie

Vicki Laveau-Harvie was born in Canada, but lived for many years in France before settling in Australia. She has three passports and treasures the unique perspective this quirk of fate affords her. In France, she worked as a translator and a business editor, despite being a specialist in 18th century French literature. In Sydney, she lectured in French Studies at Macquarie University. After retiring, she taught ethics in a primary school. Vicki Laveau-Harvie is passionate about writing, education and communication. Her memoir, The Erratics, won the 2018 Finch Memoir Prize and the 2019 Stella Prize. She has won prizes for short fiction and poetry.

Search Results

Title:

The Erratics (MP3)

Written by:

Vicki Laveau-Harvie 

Read by:

Vicki Laveau-Harvie 

Format:

Unabridged MP3 CD Audio Book 

Number of CDs:

1 

Duration:

5 hours 57 minutes 

MP3 size:

260 MB 

Published:

August 01 2019 

Available Date:

August 01 2019 

Age Category:

Adult 

ISBN:

9781460780817 

Genres:

Non-fiction; Memoirs 

Publisher:

Bolinda/HarperCollins audio 

Qty

Format

Price

Bolinda price

AUD$ 29.95

AUD$ 29.95

**

 

Bestseller
Award winning author

Winner Stella Prize 2019
Shortlisted NSW Premier's Literary Awards / Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction 2019
Winner Finch Memoir Prize 2018

Dark, sharp, blackly funny and powerful, this is memoir, wielded as weapon, with the tightly compressed energy of an explosive device.

'We've been disowned and disinherited: there's not changing it, I say. When something bad happens to them, we'll know soon enough and we'll deal with it together. I don't realise it at the time, but when I say that, I imply I care. I imply there may be something to be salvaged. I misspeak. But I'm flying out anyway. Blood calls to blood; what can I tell you.' This is a memoir about a dysfunctional family, about a mother and her daughters. But make no mistake. This is like no mother-daughter relationship you know. When Vicki Laveau-Harvie's elderly mother is hospitalised unexpectedly, Vicki and her sister travel to their parents' isolated ranch home in Alberta, Canada, to help their father. Estranged from their parents for many years, Vicki and her sister are horrified by what they discover on their arrival. For years, Vicki's mother has camouflaged her manic delusions and savage unpredictability, and over the decades she has managed to shut herself and her husband away from the outside world, systematically starving him and making him a virtual prisoner in his own home. Vicki and her sister have a lot to do, in very little time, to save their father. And at every step they have to contend with their mother, whose favourite phrase during their childhood was: 'I'll get you and you won't even know I'm doing it.' A ferocious, sharp, darkly funny and wholly compelling memoir of families, the pain they can inflict and the legacy they leave, The Erratics has the tightly coiled, compressed energy of an explosive device – it will take your breath away.

'The Erratics grabbed me by the throat and never let go ... There is a universality to the story, of ageing parents and conflicted children grappling with uncomfortable responsibilities. I loved it.'
Caroline Baum

'If someone had told me this manuscript was by a young Margaret Attwood or Alice Munro, I wouldn't have been surprised.'
Candida Baker