A World of Other People

Fourth Estate, Australia, 2013. Good secondhand copy.

Cinematic, intense and unflinching, A World of Other People is a supremely life-affirming evocation of love in war time, when every decision, and every day, matters . Joint winner of the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award (with Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan), A World of Other People is a life-affirming evocation of love in war time, when every decision, and every day, matters. Set in 1941 during the Blitz, Steven Carroll's cinematic new novel traces the love affair of Jim, an Australian pilot in Bomber Command, and Iris, a forthright young Londoner, finding her voice as a writer. Haunted by secrets and malign coincidence, the couple struggles to build a future free of society's thin-lipped disapproval. Iris shares rooftop firewatching duties with the poet TS Eliot, who unwittingly seals their fate with his famous verse 'Little Gidding'. Miles Franklin Award-winning author Steven Carroll has produced a delicate yet unflinching piece of historical fiction that captures quiet romance in the midst of great unrest. A World of Other People is a companion novel to Carroll's earlier novel The Lost Life. 'this is a memorable book; a moving love story, and a troubled reflection on the relationship between war and words ... Carroll has created, with delightful ingenuity, a rich and layered work.' the Weekend Australian