Michaela Kolofsky

And the other big thing for me about this book, Kate, I wanted to hear what you thought was that it's a very, very deep and very raw description of grief and of how grief takes shape and presents itself.

It's a book that sort of sneaks up on you.

It took a while to grab me.

And then really by the last third of the book, I was so all in.

And by the time it finished, I was weeping.

And as soon as it finished, it has an extraordinary hook in it as well, which I won't say anything more about.

But it made me want to go right back to the beginning and start reading again.

It was absolutely captivating in that way.

I do too.

And I think the last thing I'd say about the idea of a car trip, the journey, is it is a pretty straightforward metaphor, you know, the journey of self-discovery.

But the only way you describe his grief as sort of incoherent, the only way for Alex to make sense of

of why he's grieving as he is and what he feels and why he feels so sad about not just his parents' death, but about his whole life, is to go on this journey.

And as, as he goes through, as he keeps on traveling in these cars through New Zealand and the first car they drive, he and his sister drive is called

the mirage which i love it's their old family car and the car that he ends up he has to ditch the mirage after it falls apart that he ends up stealing is called the charade so even the car names have this lovely part of his own development as he goes along is he sheds things the further and further he goes into his own home in his own country

He just keeps discarding things until the very end.

He's got no shoes and no wallet and he's driving a stolen car and he's at the absolute tip of New Zealand.

He's at the point where he can't go any further and that's when he can actually face who he is and why he's so sad and why he's so angry and how he might live a little bit differently.

You're listening to The Bookshelf on ABC Radio National.

I'm Michaela Kolofsky.

I'm here this week while Cassie McCullough is away on a well-deserved little break.