Knowing what you want is hard. Accepting what is possible is harder still.
It is the mid-1980s. In Australia, stay-at-home wives jostle with want-it-all feminists, while AIDS threatens the sexual freedom of everyone. On the other side of the world, the Soviet bloc is in turmoil.
Mikhail Gorbachev has been in power for a year when twenty-four-year-old book illustrator Galina Kogan leaves Leningrad - forbidden ever to return. As a Jew, she's inherited several generations worth of Russia's chronic anti-Semitism. As a Soviet citizen, she is unprepared for Australia and its easy-going ways.
Once settled in Melbourne, Galina is befriended by Sylvie and Leonard Morrow, and their adult son, Andrew. The Morrow marriage of thirty years balances on secrets. Leonard is a man with conflicted desires and passions, while Sylvie chafes against the confines of domestic life. Their son, Andrew, a successful mosaicist, is a deeply shy man. He is content with his life and work - until he finds himself increasingly drawn to Galina.
While Galina grapples with the tumultuous demands that come with being an immigrant in Australia, her presence disrupts the lives of each of the Morrows. No one is left unchanged.
Invented Lives tells a story of exile: exile from country, exile at home, and exile from one's true self.
It is also a story about love.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'Australian novelist Goldsmith offers an intricate and provocative examination of grief and identity wrapped up in a riveting family saga ... Goldsmith's writing is enveloping and thought provoking ... A beautiful novel that challenges readers with questions that have no simple answers.' STARRED REVIEW -- Magan Szwarek * Booklist * 'It is a fabulous book ... It lives on ... What I really loved was the changing seasons of all the characters, their inner beings, their outer beings, their strengths.' -- Drusilla Modjeska 'One of the best books I've read in ages. A dizzy pleasure to read a book with such a compelling story ... Exquisitely told.' -- Mem Fox 'In her latest novel, [Andrea Goldsmith] tackles the idea and experience of exile from a surprising perspective.' -- Jane Sullivan * The Saturday Age * 'Goldsmith writes powerfully about art, love, exile and being true to oneself.' -- Nicole Abadee * Sydney Morning Herald * 'Absorbing interior monologues, the convincing details of place and texture, the feel of the weather, all inserted into a larger, meticulously researched historical or ideological background ... The freshest, most impressive quality of Invented Lives is the ease with which Goldsmith quietly rescues narratives of immigration and boy-meets-girl from cliche and convention.' -- Judith Armstrong * Weekend Australian * 'Her fiction shows characters living deeply, and in Invented Lives, her eighth novel, she does this with the level of skill we have come to expect ... Invented Lives is a novel bursting with references to books, writers and real letters with stamps, and features the famous noticeboard at Readings in Carlton. Goldsmith has always been excellent at conjuring place, and this Melbourne sparkles ... Goldsmith understands that a great deal of personal history is laced with tragedy, and accordingly she has managed, once again, to write a unique story that feels universal.' -- Louise Swinn * Sydney Morning Herald * 'This is a multi-layered story of a young Russian immigrant who introduces us to a host of Australian characters on her journey from the Soviet Union to Melbourne in the 1980s. True to expectations, the book offers a social and cultural travel guide through the era and its enormous changes. However, it is the Melbourne setting that will resonate with most readers ... A fascinating eye-opener for many readers.' -- Karina Barrymore * Herald Sun * '[A] complex and nuanced book ... Goldsmith's novel shows careful research in its evocations of time and place ... a thoughtful novel.' -- Andrew Fuhrmann * The Saturday Paper * 'This is a compassionate and thoughtful depiction of one aspect of multicultural Australia ... Invented Lives will appeal to fans of Australian literary fiction for its depiction of rich inner lives, and the conflict between desire and reality.' -- Louise Omer * <i>Books+Publishing</i> * 'Goldsmith is a masterful storyteller who explores the complex themes of identity and love in her latest novel. Invented Lives deserves a wide audience.' -- Mark Rubbo * Readings * 'I liked Invented Lives a lot. It continually held my attention in a way that made me reflect on both my life and the contemporary world. Goldsmith's writing is extremely assured. The logic of her narrative is impeccable, moving the reader back and forth in a seamless manner. Her characters are authentic (their speech and thoughts are so articulate, perhaps a testament to Goldsmith's earlier career as a speech pathologist) and her settings very evocative of era and place. Indeed this novel brings home how much has changed in the last three decades, particularly the pace of life and the passing of the analogue age. And Victorian readers will surely reminisce about what a lovely city Melbourne was (and remains).' -- Geoffrey Zygier * J-Wire * 'Goldsmith is a masterful storyteller who explores the complex themes of identity and love in her latest novel. Invented Lives deserves a wide audience.' -- Mark Rubbo * Readings * 'Invented Lives is seamless historical fiction with attention to detail. It is a heartfelt and human story of exile, love and self-expression, all hypnotically captured by Goldsmith's flare as a wordsmith ... the work's greatest feature, what truly sets it apart, is its evocative and emotive character construction. Each character is achingly ... Goldsmith's work is unforgettable, literary and beautiful, and profoundly resonates into modern life.' -- Mel O'Connor * Echo * 'Although set largely in Australia, the difficulties all emigrants experience could easily be set in New Zealand, making this book salutary for us all.' -- Felicity Price * Sunday Star Times * 'Goldsmith's accounts of Galina's lonely struggles as she tries to find her amputated, landmarkless self in her new setting are wonderfully empathetic and nuanced, and allow for some penetrating comments on Australian attitudes.' -- Katharine England * Adelaide Advertiser * 'An engrossing read that melds genres and nations.' -- Jill Nicholas * Daily Post * 'Culture, and the clash of cultures, play a crucial role in the narrative of Invented Lives, as do love, transgression, and the paradox of a past both inaccessible and inescapable ... speaks to a humanitarian ethos that transcends any particular period or culture and is certainly pertinent in the current political climate.' -- Francesca Sasnaitis * Australian Book Review * 'By discovering how they have created their identities, Goldsmith's characters can decide how best to understand themselves ... Goldsmith uses exile as an allegory for universal feelings of estrangement, alongside the specificity of Galina's adaptation to life in Australia ... Invented Lives is structured around a series of upheavals. The characters' worlds change and they must decide whether to take a risk or keep their lives as close as they can to before. Characters in this novel are defined by the risks they take, which reveal how much they value freedom and stability.' -- Melissa Thorne * Sydney Review of Books * 'Invented Lives is a compelling, powerful and compassionately told tale of loss, gain and love ... with their rich and complex inner lives, often very different from the faces they show to the world, each character is utterly captivating ... Thoughtful, enthralling and richly detailed, Invented Lives is a story about starting life afresh, and all the joy and heartbreak that this entails. It reminds us about the importance of connection and friendship, and speaks to the life-changing experience of finally finding a place to belong. A highly recommended read.' * Better Reading * '[E]xplores what happens when an imagined life meets reality ... Goldsmith's novel explores the theme of exile, with a cast of characters undergoing variations of this sense of isolation ... Invented Lives resists simplifying the messiness of real life and avoids tidying up unresolvable conclusions, giving it a satisfying integrity.' -- Jeannette Delamoir * Newtown Review of Books * 'It's hard to express the intense pleasure of reading Andrea Goldsmith's new novel, Invented Lives. It's not just that it's an absorbing novel that held my interest from start to finish, it's also a book filled with insights that will stay with me for a long time ... I was so absorbed in the lives of these characters that I wanted more.' -- Lisa Hill * ANZ LitLovers * 'Invented Lives is seamless historical fiction with attention to detail. It is a heartfelt and human story of exile, love and self-expression, all hypnotically captured by Goldsmith's flare as a wordsmith. Her depiction of historic settings is utterly immersive ... the work's greatest feature, what truly sets it apart, is its evocative and emotive character construction ... work[s] to showcase how human behaviour is shaped as a direct consequence of lived experience ... historical fiction meets slice of life. Goldsmith's work is unforgettable, literary and beautiful, and profoundly resonates into modern life.' -- Mel O'Connor * Ballarine Echo * 'I can't even begin to express how much I appreciate the authenticity of experience articulated within the pages of this novel ... Just read it and weep at the beauty of it.' * Theresa Smith Writes * 'The novel deals with large themes including the impact of immigration on both those who migrate and those who accept them. The roles of women in Australian society are challenged. Family patterns and ties, and the way in which they bind members, test people. Invented Lives demonstrated the power of different kinds love which can transcend almost unimaginable difficulties. Highly recommended.' -- Maureen Helen * How to be eighty *
Andrea Goldsmith originally trained as a speech pathologist and was a pioneer in the development of communication aids for people unable to speak.
Her first novel, Gracious Living, was published in 1989. This was followed by Modern Interiors, Facing the Music, Under the Knife, and The Prosperous Thief, which was shortlisted for the 2003 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Reunion was published in 2009, and The Memory Trap was awarded the 2015 Melbourne Prize. Her literary essays have appeared in Meanjin, Australian Book Review, Best Australian Essays, and numerous anthologies. She has mentored many emerging writers.
