THE END AND EVERYTHING BEFORE IT by Finegan Kruckemeyer

Prepare yourself for a magical, lyrical, poetic journey as you wind your way from the end to the beginning and back again in this stunningly original novel. I read it slowly, returning to passages and sentences, mulling over words, constantly astounded.

“And I learnt in that moment that love is a document that has to be translated. It’s written in so many languages, and each version you come across you have to learn anew.”

Sigh.

And:

“What horror has she inherited? Haytham longed to ask.

But to be foreign is to be mute, and he knew this.”

This is the Irish-born Australian playwright’s first novel and it is a magnificent piece of work that left me pondering my own ancestors, as the blood and memories coursing through my veins ached.

After turning the last page, I recognise that my whole self feels changed in some indefinable way.

Published by Text Publishing (2024)