A very real and powerful relationship forms. Elizabeth Knox:Īnd yet between he and Taryn, something forms. There’s something about him which means we can’t ever quite see him. There is such a tenderness in some of these relationships. Noelle McCarthy:Īnd useful to each other as well. It’s a story where the most important characters are finding how to make themselves useful to the world. It’s a story of someone who basically has a lot going for her and then is broken by something and continues to compound her difficulties, and then in the end figures out how to make herself useful. And then she proceeds to make a lot of mistakes. It’s a very relatable story in the sense that you start off with a character who’s been devastated by an event in her life that she had no control over, and didn’t expect. I read it as the story of her becoming a heroine – Elizabeth Knox:

Noelle McCarthy and Elizabeth Knox Photo: WORD Christchurch Noelle McCarthy: But in the meantime, she does break all the locks on the door to her soul. So that’s one of the stories that plays itself out. She’s, at least in the end, responsible to understand what she’s done to this man who’s taken revenge for her. So Taryn is left to try and find out what the hell has happened to her because she’s so deeply responsible. He never understands himself or explains himself enough that you get that from him. He enacts her revenge but it doesn’t fill the helpless gap that’s inside him. So he latches onto her powerful feelings. He’s a person who isn’t quite alive in his own emotions. “You know,” he says, “This is only going to work if we never see each other again.” But that’s not going to happen because he’s expressing his needs and his needs are different. But she just manages to beguile this person who is willing to do it and she never tries hard enough to think why he’s willing.Īnd this is not the end. She can’t bear the fact that this murderer is going to be in the world and her sister isn’t.Īnd if she had to accomplish the revenge herself, she probably would have been utterly helpless. Yes, she can’t get over the murder of her sister, and she can’t bear the fact that the murderer, who was only tried for manslaughter because they couldn’t prove intent (which if anyone wants to say is improbable has happened – personal experience here!). Taryn is hovering at the edge of something, and it is an act of revenge in response to an act of brutality.

Listen to Elizabeth Knox talking to Noelle McCarthy about her genre-bending epic work of fantasy Highlights of the discussion After a generous reading from the opening of the novel, Elizabeth Knox begins by discussing its protagonist, Taryn Cornick, who responds to the trauma of the death of her sister by organising what she hopes will be an untraceable hit on the man who was responsible.

The absolute book by elizabeth knox