Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%
Fiction
by Amy Baillieu
July–August 2012, no. 343

Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett

Hachette Australia, $26.99 pb, 272 pp, 9780733626579

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

The beauty and danger of the ocean and its unpredictable nature have long been fertile subjects for artists and writers, and the sea a popular and potent metaphor. In Favel Parrett’s trim, lyrical début novel Past the Shallows, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award,the sea is once again symbolic. In fact, nearly everything in this novel feels symbolic, sometimes distractingly so.

 


Continue reading for only $10 per month.
Subscribe and gain full access to Australian Book Review.

Already a subscriber? .
If you need assistance, feel free to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..



Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett

Hachette Australia, $26.99 pb, 272 pp, 9780733626579

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.


From the New Issue

The Odyssey: A mesmerising guide to Odysseus’s world by Homer, translated from ancient Greek by Daniel Mendelsohn

by Glyn Davis

Now, the People!: France’s populist left leader by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, translated from French by David Broder

by Peter McPhee

‘Weather’

by Dženana Vucic

Letters – October 2025

by Eli McLean, Theodore Ell, Ben Brooker, et al.

You May Also Like

Far Away

by Ben Brooker

Explain away

by Judith Armstrong

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.

Submit comment