The Happiness Glass

Carol Lefevre is an Adelaide-based writer whose book, The Happiness Glass, explores the imaginative terrain between essays and short fiction. The narrative takes us from remote NSW to New Zealand and England through a series of deeply affecting experiences of poverty, domestic violence, loneliness, infertility, adoption and grief. Her writing is sharp, moving, insightful and beautifully poetic. "Burning With Madame Bovary" records the tentative emergence of a writer, while the remaining essays explore the complex griefs of homesickness, inter-country adoption, and family estrangement. The fictional character Lily Brennan appears at points from childhood to old age, allowing the writer to navigate some of the problems of autobiographical writing, while adding layers of meaning to the unfolding life