Gretchen Shirm – Out of the Woods

IN CONVERSATION WITH TEGAN BENNETT DAYLIGHT

In the year 2000, an Australian woman travels to the Hague to work as the secretary for an Australian judge. There, she sits through the trial of a former military man who has been charged with war crimes. As the trial proceeds, she is confronted with two conflicting impulses: being deeply affected by the testimony of witnesses, while at the same time plagued by an enduring doubt as to the defendant’s guilt.

Meanwhile, she begins an unexpected romance and friendship, and these relationships help her to understand the stories of extraordinary survival she hears about during the trial. When she is called back to Australia to reckon with her own childhood, she finds she can’t quite leave everything she’s heard behind. Out of the Woods asks what it means to bear witness to the suffering of people who have experienced real tragedy and whether it is possible, afterwards, to resume a normal life.

‘This searchingly original novel counters the historical weight of human cruelty with small acts of attention and persistence. Shirm’s empathy and intelligent precision exert a quiet moral authority on every page.’ Delia Falconer

‘a stunning writer’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘Shirm’s use of language is brilliantly inventive’ The Australian

‘Shirm’s writing is crisp and precise and will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Gwendoline Riley and Charlotte Wood.’ The Guardian

RSVP ESSENTIAL

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Gretchen Shirm is the author of Having Cried Wolf, Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room. She was a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist and both her novels Where the Light Falls and The Crying Room were shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Awards. In 2023–2024 she received the BR Whiting Fellowship from Creative Australia. Gretchen’s short fiction has been published in Best Australian Stories, Griffith Review, The Australian, Overland, Meanjin and Southerly. Her literary criticism is published widely, including in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Weekend Australian. Gretchen worked as a public law lawyer for more than a decade and now teaches creative writing.

Tegan Bennett Daylight is a writer, teacher and critic. Her books include the Stella Award shortlisted Six Bedrooms and the novels Safety and Bombora. Her new novel How to Survive 1985 is published this year. She lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband and two children.

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