Oooh, this is a good one. Piper’s beautiful writing elevates this novel above so many thrillers. Her description of the Australian bush and the three women tramping through it are utterly free from cliche, and quite mesmerising. By the end we feel we know all the women well, especially Samantha.
The three women, friends from high school, are retracing their steps from a three day trek they took more than twenty years earlier. In the original hike, the women were dogged and taunted by a man whose unseen presence poisoned the peace of their surroundings and eventually lead to a sickening confrontation.
The Geography of Friendship is about the often complicated nature of women’s relationships with one another, and the effect of nature on the human psyche. But mostly it is about humiliation, and how the experience of humiliation leaves an indelible stain on the soul:
“Lisa might have little physical memory of him now, but what she hasn’t been able to shut out is the ugly geography of her own failings in the face of him. This is the thing that haunts her. Not the man.”
Such stunning writing. A intelligent Australian thriller, written by a writer who understands women. So many reasons to love this book.
