At school, it was always the quiet ones who concerned me. In whole class discussions – even in small group discussions with carefully chosen participants with empathy and patience – the students who would take forever to make any contribution used to worry me. These were smart, thoughtful children, often capable in non-verbal activities of producing original ideas in creative ways. But in the rough and tumble of a classroom or a playground, their habit of thinking long and hard while we waited for what seemed to be a forthcoming response only to have them lapse into an impenetrable silence, made things difficult. What would become of them in a workplace, I used to wonder, and how would their relationships work out?

Gretchen Shirm’s debut novel Where the Light Falls features a character like this. Andrew has solved the workplace problem by becoming a notable photographer. He works his own hours – free from routines, suits and deadlines – and by moving from Australia to Berlin he has been able to build a career that doesn’t have to include photographing cat food or weddings. He’s not wealthy, but enough art lovers buy his photographs for him to have solo exhibitions.

He has a nice girlfriend too. She’s a dance teacher called Dom (Dominique) and she wears bright and colourful hats that are a cry of protest in the grey Berlin streets. But – consistent with Andrew’s interest in the honesty in broken things – she is wounded by her experience as a dancer never having quite got the break she wanted. Andrew admires the way she can talk about failure. He doesn’t seem to be able to talk about anything.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/04/05/where-the-light-falls-by-gretchen-shirm/ ( )