Podcasts Other The Wheeler Centre Take Home Reading: Victoria Hannan

Take Home Reading: Victoria Hannan

Published: Aug. 3, 2020, 5:03 a.m.

Photograph of Victoria Hannan next to the cover of her book, 'Kokomo', featuring a cropped photograph of a woman leaning against a wall, holding her arms high, inset with a light red background surrounding it

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work. 

In this episode we’re talking to Victoria Hannan about her novel, Kokomo.

Kokomo is a stunning debut novel from the winner of the 2019 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Both tender and fierce, heartbreaking and funny, Kokomo is a story about how secrets and love have the power to bring us together and tear us apart.

‘When I was writing it I had this thought of like, is anyone going to be able to empathise with what it's like to be stuck in your house for a long time? And now, we all know what that feels like, so I feel like Elaine is sort of relatable in some ways because she's inside (that's the mother character, Elaine), but also in other ways she wants to stay inside, whereas we're all just like, "Oh my God, I need to get out of this house". So I think people will empathise with her, but also find her a bit infuriating, maybe.’

Kokomo is out now through Hachette.

Transcript

Download a PDF transcript of this episode here.