Coda

Thea Astley's brilliant satire on old age shimmers with grief and irony. One of Australia's most important novelists, Thea Astley, is at her most wickedly funny and pertinent in Coda . Kathleen is facing old age alone. Between her selfish children - 'Brain' and his straying wife, and daughter Shamrock and Shamrock's hubby the 'Big Developer' - there is no longer a place for her. But Passing Downs Old People's Home is still not the place for a woman like Kathleen. She is not ready for that and they're not ready for her. 'I've skipped the grandma years,' Kathleen said. 'The four ages of women: bimbo, breeder, baby-sitter, burden ... I've cut and run. Wasn't going to tell a soul but I've decided cutting and running is what it's all about.' Thea Astley is at her most wickedly funny and pertinent in Coda. This brilliant satire on old age shimmers with grief and irony. Praise for Coda: '[a] jewel of a book' - Jane Wheatley, HQ 'It is spiky and restless...... Kathleen is facing old age alone. Between her selfish children - 'Brain' and his straying wife, and daughter Shamrock and Shamrock's hubby the 'Big Developer' - there is no longer a place for her. But Passing Downs Old People's Home is still not the place for a woman like Kathleen. She is not ready for that and they're not ready for her.

'I've skipped the grandma years,' Kathleen said. 'The four ages of women: bimbo, breeder, baby-sitter, burden . I've cut and run. Wasn't going to tell a soul but I've decided cutting and running is what it's all about.'

Thea Astley is at her most wickedly funny and pertinent in Coda. This brilliant satire on old age shimmers with grief and irony.

Praise for Coda: '[a] jewel of a book' - Jane Wheatley, HQ

'It is spiky and restless. daring and engaging-and inimitably Astley.' - Helen Elliott, Canberra Times

'Caustic, shrewd, witty, ironic, full of bright aplomb and jaunty ferocity . [Astley] had constructed a tricky satire halfway between farce and tragedy, a delicately balanced fiction.' - The New York Times Book Review Kathleen is facing old age alone. Between her selfish children - 'Brain' and his straying wife, and daughter Shamrock and Shamrock's hubby the 'Big Developer' - there is no longer a place for her. But Passing Downs Old People's Home is still not the place for a woman like Kathleen. She is not ready for that and they're not ready for her. 'I've skipped the grandma years,' Kathleen said. 'The four ages of women: bimbo, breeder, baby-sitter, burden ... I've cut and run. Wasn't going to tell a soul but I've decided cutting and running is what it's all about.' Thea Astley is at her most wickedly funny and pertinent in Coda. This brilliant satire on old age shimmers with grief and irony. Praise for Coda: 'a jewel of a book' - Jane Wheatley, HQ 'It is spiky and restless... daring and engaging-and inimitably Astley.' - Helen Elliott, Canberra Times 'Caustic, shrewd, witty, ironic, full of bright aplomb and jaunty ferocity ... [Astley] had constructed a tricky satire halfway between farce and tragedy, a delicately balanced fiction.' - The New York Times Book Review Kathleen is facing old age alone. Her husband gone, she finds herself, much to her distress, slowly losing her capacity for memory. She despises her children's callousness and self-absorption: her son "Brain" is too caught up in pursuing his own illusive freedom and identity; her daughter Shamrock and Shamrock's ruthless land-developing husband have neither the patience nor the empathy to allow Kathleen to live as she pleases. Faced with losing everything she loves or once loved, Kathleen is forced to take drastic action, while there's still time, to hold on to her beloved freedom