A soldier figurine unites characters across history and culture in this provocative if sometimes uneven new work of fiction from the prolific Brisbane writer
The Brisbane-based writer Nick Earls has a large and diverse oeuvre of novels, young adult fiction and short stories. Empires, his latest release, dives deep into how we imagine the past and the impact history has on our present as it dextrously shifts between continents and skips across time, from now to the era of Napoleon and Beethoven.
Despite being split into five parts, each set in a different place and time, the novel is in many ways a contemporary story about how the past seeps into the present. It opens in 2018 with Simon, who is learning the real estate game in the town of Girdwood, Alaska. Simon is preoccupied with a knee injury sustained in a car accident. He is worried about his wife, Lacy, who teaches cello in her home music studio. He does his best to be a stepdad to Cedar, Lacy’s son. They listen to a Spotify playlist that reminds Simon of his childhood, when he lived in Brisbane. Earls writes the texture of Simon’s life with such an eye for detail and private anxiety that, even though we don’t know what shape this narrative will take, we’re certainly along for the ride.
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