Sufficient Grace

Amy Espeseth

‘Espeseth’s portrait of Ruth’s close relationship with her cousin Naomi is particularly nuanced, challenging and heart-rending.’

Adelaide Advertiser

‘Sufficient Grace is one of those rare début novels whose narrative progresses through allusion rather than assertion ... I am reminded of Cormac McCarthy’s apocalyptic Blood Meridian (1985): its biblical lyricism and themes of violence, power, and sin.’

Australian Book Review

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'The novel captures Ruth’s transformation from innocence to responsibility well and should appeal to those who like their fiction well-crafted but explosive.' FOUR STARS

Australian Bookseller and Publisher

‘There is no denying the substance and power of Espeseth’s writing, which draws so deeply on her own experience. How good it is that she is free to do so. How good, as well, that Australia can call her one of our own.’

Canberra Times

‘ … a deftly descriptive, riveting debut …’

Qantas Magazine

‘Divine … exquisite … Sufficient Grace is a mighty achievement and is among the year's must-read literary novels.’

Conrad Walters, The Age

‘Espeseth is a gorgeous writer; this book is dense with finely etched imagery, much of it rooted in the natural world.’

Weekend Australian

‘Evocative and moving. It’s a gripping tale about faith, family and fundamentalism … A gritty rumination on the power of familial bonds and lost innocence.’

YEN Magazine

‘Set in a cloistered community of Scandinavian Pentecostals in the icy wilds of Wisconsin, this powerful, elemental novel presents a fully realised world of a family turned in upon itself. It captures the harsh beauty of the unforgiving natural world in prose that is charged with biblical cadences and authority. Attuned to the rhythms of the natural and liturgical cycles, the novel recounts an utterly convincing and heart-rending story of lost innocence and the quest for absolution.’

Victorian Premier's Literary Award Judges 2009

‘As disturbing as they are, there are stories that demand to be written. This is such a story, delivered by a writer of remarkable talent. Long after reading Sufficient Grace you will not forget it, and will be left with wanting more from Amy Espeseth.’

Tony Birch

‘A novel of heart-rending beauty. Seldom have grace and nature, spirit and flesh, spoken to each other so wonderfully.’

Michael McGirr

‘Simply brilliant. Haunting, gritty and emotionally dark.’

Jessica Au

‘A burning first novel … Espeseth gives a virtuoso evocation of ice and blood in rural United States, with a powerful dramatic story of sibling loyalty in the midst of family strife.’

Ian Sansom, Marina Warner, and Ed Byrne — Warwick Prize for Writing judges, 2013

‘Sufficient Grace is a slow burning novel with a dark intensity that simmers beneath largely silent images.’

Rebecca Howden, 3000Melbourne

Ruth and her cousin Naomi live in rural Wisconsin, part of an isolated religious community. The girls’ lives are ruled by the rhythms of nature — the harsh winters, the hunting seasons, the harvesting of crops — and by their families’ beliefs. Beneath the surface of this closed, frozen world, hidden dangers lurk.

Then Ruth learns that Naomi harbours a terrible secret. She searches for solace in the mysteries of the natural world: broken fawns, migrating birds, and the strange fish deep beneath the ice. Can the girls’ prayers for deliverance be answered?

Sufficient Grace is a story of lost innocence and the unfailing bond between two young women. It is at once devastating and beautiful, and ultimately transcendent.

‘Espeseth’s portrait of Ruth’s close relationship with her cousin Naomi is particularly nuanced, challenging and heart-rending.’

Adelaide Advertiser

Australian Book Review

View all reviews

'The novel captures Ruth’s transformation from innocence to responsibility well and should appeal to those who like their fiction well-crafted but explosive.' FOUR STARS

Australian Bookseller and Publisher

Canberra Times

‘ … a deftly descriptive, riveting debut …’

Qantas Magazine

‘Divine … exquisite … Sufficient Grace is a mighty achievement and is among the year's must-read literary novels.’

Conrad Walters, The Age

‘Espeseth is a gorgeous writer; this book is dense with finely etched imagery, much of it rooted in the natural world.’

Weekend Australian

‘Evocative and moving. It’s a gripping tale about faith, family and fundamentalism … A gritty rumination on the power of familial bonds and lost innocence.’

YEN Magazine

Victorian Premier's Literary Award Judges 2009

Tony Birch

‘A novel of heart-rending beauty. Seldom have grace and nature, spirit and flesh, spoken to each other so wonderfully.’

Michael McGirr

‘Simply brilliant. Haunting, gritty and emotionally dark.’

Jessica Au

‘A burning first novel … Espeseth gives a virtuoso evocation of ice and blood in rural United States, with a powerful dramatic story of sibling loyalty in the midst of family strife.’

Ian Sansom, Marina Warner, and Ed Byrne — Warwick Prize for Writing judges, 2013

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:336pp

ISBN (13):9781922070029

RRP:$29.99

Pub date:22 Aug 2012

Rights Held: World

High-res cover:Download Image

BOOK CLUB NOTES:Download PDF

AWARDS

2014 Barbara Jefferis Award - Short-listed 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award - Long-listed 2013 Davitt Award - Long-listed 2013 Stella Prize - Long-listed 2013 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards - Short-listed 2013 Warwick Prize for Writing - Short-listed Honourable Mention in the ASLE Environmental Creative Writing Award - Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript - Winner

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AUTHOR

Amy Espeseth

Born in rural Wisconsin, Amy Espeseth immigrated to Australia in the late 1990s and lives in Melbourne. A writer, publisher, and academic, she is the recipient of the 2007 Felix Meyer Scholarship in Literature, the 2010 QUT Postgraduate Creative Writing Prize, and the 2012 CAL Scribe Fiction Prize. Sufficient Grace won the 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript.