Friday, October 10, 2025

'My Heart at Evening': Love at First Sight by Poppy Gee

 My mum used to mark a J in the inside cover of library books with a soft pencil, to show that my dad had already read them. Dru Ann Love's record of what she reads evolved into an award-winning, guest-infested daily blog. Where do you sit when it comes to reading notes? Do you keep a record, write reviews, make annotations in the margins . . .?

I like writing reviews of books and I like posting them on Instagram, with a beautiful photo of the book. As I hit ‘post’, it feels like I’m throwing a bouquet of freshly picked flowers into the air, one which the book’s author will catch with joy.

A few years ago, I stopped saying ‘review’ and started saying ‘recommendation’. I’m not analysing, I’m simply saying, I found a book you might like. I don’t write negative reviews. That’s not my job. I think it’s easy to write negative stuff, it’s harder to explain why the work resonates with you, where it sits in the literary canon, and what is shows us about the human condition, or the world we live in. I often research the subgenre if it’s unfamiliar to me. It helps me understand the author’s intent, and achievement.

Below is a book rec I wrote recently. As I say in my piece, it was love at first sight… everything I learned about the book intrigued and seduced me. And when I finally read it, I was utterly enamoured. The writing is elegant, the author poetically describes the lavish miserable decadence of the Tasmanian wilderness, and challenges long held assumptions about Tasmanian history and people. At it’s core is a dark mystery, a cold case that will never be resolved.



From my Instagram, 4 October 2025:

Book rec: Very occasionally you find yourself falling in love with a book that you haven’t read. Its a rare phenomenon but it happens. Right now I’m in the delightful state of love at first sight for My Heart At Evening by Konrad Muller.

The romance began when I saw on Instagram the author doing events at Tasmanian bookshops. I was intrigued. A debut novel, set in Tasmania, with that exquisitely enchanting title…

And then I discovered that the novel is about Henry Hellyer, an architect who took his own life in 1832 at Highfield House, Stanley. That hooked me because earlier this year I visited Highfield house. In an upstairs bedroom, overlooking the ocean, I read Henry’s suicide note and the witness statements provided after his death. The statements were lavishly and strangely worded and read like the people had colluded. There were inconsistent details in other reports. I asked the house manager if she thought he took his own life and, to my surprise, she admitted that she personally didn’t believe he did. It seemed perhaps Henry Hellyer’s mysterious death was Tasmania’s first documented anti-gay crime. I was intrigued. This book is about that man.

I bought my copy at Petrachs in Launceston yesterday. It’s one of the most divinely produced books I’ve ever held. The cover is thick, and the spine feels seamless. Inside the cover is indigo to match the blue gentian flower on the cover. The blurb is short: two enigmatic, poetic observations.

Those blurbs! To die for! ‘A glossy black cockatoo of a book…’

Everything about this book feels otherworldly. Even the publisher sounds intriguing, like a character in a curious old novel:

‘Based in Lutruwita/Tasmania, Evercreech Editions publishes the boldest, strangest, and most necessary voices we can find. We value deep thought and burning intensity; work that is formally striking, emotionally resonant, and politically alive. Emerging writers, overlooked classics, and essential works in translation—if it is stunning and urgent we want to print it.’

It was so satisfying I returned to Petrachs this morning to buy a second copy for my sister.



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