Garnet
by Jennifer Severn
Vine Leaves Press

Reviewed by Wendy Tucker

Garnet is a new novel by local author Jennifer Severn. It follows her successful memoir, Long Road to Dry River which was shortlisted for the Finch Prize for memoir. An earlier manuscript of Garnet was shortlisted for the Viva la Novella prize and, now that it has been published, Garnet is a finalist for the Wishing Shelf Book Award in the UK.

A garnet is a pretty, semi-precious stone, used in jewellery, but known for its hardness in industrial applications. The title certainly fits.

It is a gem of a book, but there is a harder reality here. Set in the very small town of Garnet, the novel gives us interconnecting, interwoven stories of the inhabitants of the town. The lives of small-town rural dwellers may seem small and insignificant, but we learn that no lives are small. The characters live big lives with tragedy, loss, gains and love. These ordinary people quietly live extraordinary lives, as we all do. Severn gives us more than thirty characters who we come to love and understand. It is Severn’s skill that allows us to track them as the story shifts from one character to another, and the roles they play in each other’s lives through time. This is indeed skilled writing, moving from each character’s perspective and between the 60s and 90s without the confusion that this huge cast could bring.

There is Ramesh, the Australian Indian who unexpectedly finds love from an Indian matchmaker. In Bindi, he now has a fiery soulmate by his side to fight the unscrupulous developers and save his service station and Indian café.
Wayne, the fiery-tempered car wreck business owner, finds unexpected calm as he watches his wife disappear into dementia and discovers her long-held secret.

Olivia lives with guilt and loss but finds comfort in truth, family and farming.

Claire, the local solicitor, who has submitted to her controlling husband, rediscovers her strength when she takes on the case against the developers.

And Hetty, the tough one, who longs to end the estrangement from her daughter-in-law and have contact with her grandson.

There are so many more beautifully drawn vignettes to be devoured here. Droll, funny, sad but always sympathetic and full of the details of both the outer and inner lives of the characters in their joys, tragedies and secrets.
And the book has an evocative cover by the fabulous Tony King.

Garnet is available from The Sundeck in Bermagui, Quaama Store, Candelo Books in Bega and Well Thumbed Books in Cobargo.

This novel deserves a wide readership so grab your copy.