All the Unloved

Is it a painting? Is it a poem? No, it's a novella as an act of prestidigitation. And it will become a classic.

In a fresh, free, engaging style, Susan McCreery explores the histories - tragic, comic, mundane - of lives in a Bondi apartment block. The camera angles of the elegant, sensual prose shift and glide as the full scale of the drama is steadily illuminated. - Carmel Bird

Susan McCreery is the master of the small, deft stroke: her characters come alive, break your heart, make you want to live. McCreery can do in one page what might take other writers a whole novel. - Hayley Scrivenor

Tender. Crushingly real. This exquisite rendering of human longing will unravel your heart and weave it whole again. - Carol Major

All the Unloved is a novella-length journey to nineties Bondi. We meet residents from a block of flats - initially linked only through their shared address - but quickly entangled through their secrets and desires.

Jade, skateboard slung under arm, teeters on the edge of womanhood in nineties Bondi. Through her eyes we view the intertwined lives of her unit block neighbours - a queer couple attempts a fresh start near the beach, a lonely violinist battles isolation, and a pair of elderly sisters watch all from their window, regretting missed opportunities. When brilliant Rebecca, a young author, arrives on the scene, wounds and desires are exposed, and secrets unravel.

About the Author

From poetry to microfiction, short stories, and now a novella, South Coast author of Waiting for the Southerly (Ginninderra Press 2012, shortlisted for the Anne Elder award), Loopholes (Spineless Wonders 2016, shortlisted for the MUBA, now BOTY) and This Person Is Not That Person (Puncher & Wattmann 2019), Susan McCreery captures in All the Unloved a story of love in many of its forms - mother love, unrequited love, elderly love - as well as the iconic Bondi scents of sand, salt and sunscreen.