“WHEN WAS IT THAT I BECAME A VOYEUR in their midst? I was the perfect witness, an unsuspected anthropologist disguised within the body of a young girl, surrounded by other young girls who were part of the family. Yet I was a cuckoo in the nest, an imposter who listened and observed, hoarding and collecting information.” 

Emily Bitto’s debut novel was inspired by aspects of the renowned Heide group of modernist artists and writers, which included controversial figures such as Sidney Nolan and John and Sunday Reed, whose private lives were as unconventional as their creations.

On her first day at a new school, Lily Struthers meets Eva, one of the daughters of the infamous avant-garde artist Evan Trentham. He and his wife are attempting to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930s Australia by inviting other like-minded artists to live and work with them at their family home. As Lily’s friendship with Eva grows, she becomes increasingly infatuated by the exotic world Eva lives in, longing to be a part of the Trenthams’ bohemian, makeshift family.

Looking back on those years later in life, Lily realises that this utopian circle involved the same themes as Evan Trentham’s art: Faustian bargains and terrible recompense; spectacular fortunes and falls from grace. Yet it was not Evan, nor the other artists he gathered around him, but his own daughters, who paid the debt that was owing.

The Strays is an engrossing story of friendship, art, ambition, and betrayal.

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Reviews for 'The Strays"

The Guardian – The Fizz and the Fall of Bohemian Living

The New York Times – In a Debut Novel, the Artist’s Life Takes on Darker Shades

The Sydney Morning Herald – Emily Bitto's Debut Novel of Loneliness and Self-absorption

NPR – 'The Strays' Invites You to a Disturbing, Magical World

Review on Readings.com.au