The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt Tracy Farr 9781910709054

Longlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Literary Award

Tracy Farr's acclaimed debut novel is the fictional memoir of Dame Lena Gaunt: musician, octogenarian, junkie.

'Compelling reading' The Listener

I hold one regret from that day: that I put my first love, my cello, aside. But it was to take up a bigger love, a greater thing; it was to step into the future. Music's Most Modern Instrument. And I was to become Music's Most Modern Musician.

Tracy Farr's debut novel is the fictional memoir of Dame Lena Gaunt: musician, octogenarian, junkie. Documentary filmmaker Mo Patterson approaches veteran musician Lena Gaunt after watching her play at a festival in Perth: her first performance in 20 years.

While initially suspicious of Mo's intentions and reluctant to have her privacy invaded, Lena finds herself sharing stories from her past.

From a solitary childhood in Malacca and a Perth boarding school, to a glittering career in Jazz-age Sydney, to quiet domesticity in a New-Zealand backwater, Lena's is a life characterized by the pull of the sea, the ebb and flow of passion and loss, and her enduring relationship with that extraordinary instrument, the theremin.

Tracy Farr is an Australian-born, New Zealand-based writer and former research scientist.

Her debut novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt was shortlisted for the 2014 WA Premier's Book Awards and the 2014 Barbara Jefferis Award, and longlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Tracy's short fiction has been published in anthologies, literary journals and popular magazines, and broadcast on Radio New Zealand. She won the 2014 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award for her story Once had me, and other stories have been commended and shortlisted for awards in New Zealand and Australia.

'Tracy dares to go where many a writer might retreat, Lena's story full of raw power. This is writing that is not afraid' Dame Fiona Kidman, author of The Infinite Air

This is a sparkling debut novel that captures the spirit of an accomplished woman as she reflects on the arc of her long life' Adelaide Advertiser

'The skill in creating a protagonist so thoroughly believable makes The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt an incredibly pleasurable, satisfying read' The Buzz About

'Tracy Farr's beautifully written and well-crafted novel combines music and art as she moves the reader around the globe through the dazzling 30s and 40s, paying tribute to the life of an artist in all its forms' West Australian

'A quiet gem of a novel...Farr is a vivid, evocative writer, with a gift for creating imagery from words. She brings Lena Gaunt to life' S.Roe, NetGalley reviewer

'Compelling reading' The Listener