Description

‘A boisterous romp that spotlights serious social issues’ DAILY MAIL

‘A Down Under Demon Copperhead… it’s more than feel-good, it’s feel-everything. What a triumph’ A. J. FINN

Bighearted, gritty, magical and moving, this is the irresistible new novel from the internationally bestselling author of BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE and ALL OUR SHIMMERING SKIES.

‘Mirror, mirror, on the grass, what’s my future? What’s my past?’

A girl and her mother have been on the run for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat. They’ve found themselves a home inside a van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River.

The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you’re on the run. But the girl has a dream. A vision of a life as an artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen ‘Lady’ Flora Box. A life of love with the boy who’s waiting for her on the bridge that stretches across a flooding, deadly river. A life beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there’s only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can ever do. She must look in the mirror.

From international bestselling author Trent Dalton, LOLA IN THE MIRROR is a big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror: all our past, all our present, and all our possible futures.

Publisher Review

‘Unpredictable, fantastic… It takes a charged narrative, like Dickens achieves, and as Dalton does too, to reach the heart and the brain – writing that is able to carry both stories, the individual and the political/personal… To tell you more would spoil this complicated and surprising story. You should read it.’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘Trent Dalton’s third novel reminds me of the 1980s advertising slogan for the author’s home state of Queensland: Beautiful one day, perfect the next … Lola in the Mirror is a bold, big-hearted, hopeful, humorous, dark, reflective, truthful, superbly written novel that confirms Dalton’s place in all the shimmering skies (to borrow the title of his second novel) of Australian literature. He is not a rising star but a star full stop.’ The Australian