Latest news with #Arborescence
ABC News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
People turning into trees, mythical rivers rising...new novels by Rhett Davis and Gurnaik Johal (plus, Irish fiction with Colm Tóibín)
Australian author Rhett Davis re-imagines the everyday in his novels. In his latest, Arborescence, ordinary people begin transforming into trees. Is it a cult? Performance art? Or something else entirely? Also on the show: Guest reviewer Roanna Gonsalves discusses Saraswati, the debut novel by Gurnaik Johal, which winds its narrative around a sacred and possibly mythical river in North India. And, Kate Evans speaks with Irish writer Colm Tóibín, delving into the literary influences that have shaped his work. BOOKS Rhett Davis, Arborescence, Hachette Gurnaik Johal, Saraswati, Serpent's Tail Colm Toibin, works GUESTS Roanna Gonsalves is a writer, teacher of creative writing at UNSW, and editor of the literary journal, Southerly Colm Toibin, Irish novelist and essayist – whose books include The Blackwater Lightship, Nora Webster, Brooklyn, The Master, The Magician – and his latest, Long Island. He spoke to Kate Evans at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Jane Austen, works Jane Austen, works Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13 Fiona McFarlane, Highway 13 Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees J.R.R. Tolkein, works J.R.R. Tolkein, works Malcolm Knox The First Friend Malcolm Knox The First Friend Raaza Jamshed, What Kept You Raaza Jamshed, What Kept You Georgia Rose Phillips, The Bearcat Georgia Rose Phillips, The Bearcat Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge Henry James, works Henry James, works Thomas Mann, works Thomas Mann, works James Baldwin, works CREDITS
Sydney Morning Herald
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Strange ideas take root in this ambitious story about our climate crisis
FICTION Arborescence Rhett Davis Hachette, $32.99 We're familiar with the idea that planting a tree is a gesture of hope, a way of helping to heal the Earth. But what about taking root and becoming trees ourselves? The characters in Victorian writer Rhett Davis' new novel Arborescence feel both overwhelmed and underwhelmed by life in what is recognisably a version of urban Australia. Their planet has been ravaged by humanity's overconsumption. Their workplaces are being transformed by 'alternative intelligences'. Someone has spray-painted 'THERE IS NO HOPE' on a train station wall. But something extraordinary is happening. In forests and fields, on roads and along waterways, people are turning into trees – by choice. The book's title was our first hint that this was going to happen; arborescence means 'becoming tree-like'. But why is this happening? Is this a cult? Performance art? A protest against modern existence? A resignation to grief and helplessness? Or is this metamorphosis a way of healing, a statement of solidarity with the Earth? Those who read Davis' quirkily dystopian 2022 debut Hovering may be hearing an echo here. In Hovering, as houses were transplanted, roads re-routed and humans altered by online over-stimulation, one character read a book by an author arguing that in a world of chaos and uncertainty, the best response was to be as quiet as plants. In Arborescence, Davis takes this idea and runs with it. Caelyn and Bren are the novel's main characters. They've been in a relationship for four years. They own a cat. They have families and a circle of friends, but there's something robotic about these interactions. What if, Caelyn asks early on, there's no humanity left in humanity? Bren, the novel's first-person narrator, works for a company he knows little about. Even after years of employment he's never actually met another human employee. He's assigned various tasks by 'the Queue' – writing, editing, creating images – but doesn't know why these things must be done or who they're for.
The Age
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Strange ideas take root in this ambitious story about our climate crisis
FICTION Arborescence Rhett Davis Hachette, $32.99 We're familiar with the idea that planting a tree is a gesture of hope, a way of helping to heal the Earth. But what about taking root and becoming trees ourselves? The characters in Victorian writer Rhett Davis' new novel Arborescence feel both overwhelmed and underwhelmed by life in what is recognisably a version of urban Australia. Their planet has been ravaged by humanity's overconsumption. Their workplaces are being transformed by 'alternative intelligences'. Someone has spray-painted 'THERE IS NO HOPE' on a train station wall. But something extraordinary is happening. In forests and fields, on roads and along waterways, people are turning into trees – by choice. The book's title was our first hint that this was going to happen; arborescence means 'becoming tree-like'. But why is this happening? Is this a cult? Performance art? A protest against modern existence? A resignation to grief and helplessness? Or is this metamorphosis a way of healing, a statement of solidarity with the Earth? Those who read Davis' quirkily dystopian 2022 debut Hovering may be hearing an echo here. In Hovering, as houses were transplanted, roads re-routed and humans altered by online over-stimulation, one character read a book by an author arguing that in a world of chaos and uncertainty, the best response was to be as quiet as plants. In Arborescence, Davis takes this idea and runs with it. Caelyn and Bren are the novel's main characters. They've been in a relationship for four years. They own a cat. They have families and a circle of friends, but there's something robotic about these interactions. What if, Caelyn asks early on, there's no humanity left in humanity? Bren, the novel's first-person narrator, works for a company he knows little about. Even after years of employment he's never actually met another human employee. He's assigned various tasks by 'the Queue' – writing, editing, creating images – but doesn't know why these things must be done or who they're for.
