Cleave

Snip freeman is a painter with a waitressing problem, a wanderer in search of her past. She'll visit a place, find a man and a studio and a scrap of a job, until the zing of uncertainty pulls her on. She is anchored nowhere, touches the earth lightly. Then she turns her back on a drowning man. And suddenly she has a reason to stay put...

Taking up 'Shiver's' theme of women in tough places, 'Cleave' moves from a desert of ice to a desert of sand, where Nikki Gemmell spins a web of love, sex and betrayal. 'Cleave' illuminates the troubled relationship between wandering and settling, belonging and freedom, parents and children, partners and lovers; between white Australia and black Australia, secretive silences and the truth. It is a novel of great power and lyricism.