When Olivia returns to the grand chateau in France she once called home, with her two children in tow, their arrival is unexpected. They have journeyed from Australia, escaping unspoken horrors, but home is not what it was . . .' A powerful and disquieting novella, a work of fiction so infused with the practices of film that, while each scene is fully and even vividly realised in words, it also translates quite naturally into film, into a visually rich action taking place before the inner eye.'J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of DISGRACE'DISQUIET is the work of an artist who looks for truth in fear and trembling . . . It testifies to the power and seriousness of one of the most talented Australian writers to appear in ages.'Peter Craven, THE AUSTRALIAN'[Leigh] creates images which are new and memorable. She has a wonderful eye for details . . . Julia Leigh has written an extraordinary...

An intensely personal narrative of loss, hope, and longing for a child.In this brave and lucid account, Julia Leigh broaches a challenging life event often left undiscussed: how the struggle to have a child can take an agonizing toll. Leigh's experience at the vanguard of medical science is acutely rendered, physically and emotionally, transmitting what it feels like to so desperately wish for a child while knowing that the odds are stacked against you. From the daily shots she puts herself through at home, to hopes raised and dashed, and finally to the decision to stop treatment, Avalanche bears witness to Leigh's raw desire, suffering, strength, and, in the end, transformation—a shift to a different kind of love. The reader looks behind the scenes of a clinic and discovers how things really work: reality is a far cry from the slick marketing of the billion-dollar infertility industry. As for so many women, Leigh's treatment failed, but her ghost child lingers in memory.