The Crying Room

Judges' comments

Bernie has moved from Sydney to Ballina and is grappling with the emotional and physical distance between her and her adult daughters, Susie and Allison. Allison is resentful of Susie’s success and the relationship Susie has formed with her daughter Monica. Susie’s role is navigating the world of work, marriage and how to be the adult in the family. It’s left for Monica to write their story.

The Crying Room is a moving exploration of mothers and daughters and the art and the act of writing. It is a meditation on loss in all its forms: loss of identity, loss of purpose and loss of a loved one. Stylistically experimental, including two slightly dystopian chapters and another chapter which is completely redacted, the novel is an imaginative rendering of family, guilt, trauma, forgiveness and responsibility. For all its complexity, and it rewards rereading, Gretchen Shirm’s emotional honesty and deep empathy for her characters never falters.