In her latest novel the bestselling author of Big Little Lies takes a group of disparate strangers into a health retreat that may not be quite what it seems.

Nine Perfect Strangers is the latest release from Australian author Liane Moriarty, known to many through novels like The Husband’s Secret and Big Little Lies, and now known to many more through the runaway success of the HBO version of the latter, staring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.

Moriarty’s work is classified on Amazon under ‘family life’, and certainly the heart of her stories lies with the cares and concerns of ordinary people – the school mums of Big Little Lies, the suburban families of The Husband’s Secret and the struggling, separated couple of What Alice Forgot.

These are the same people you pass in the street every day, exchange brief words with in the supermarket queue, sigh at impatiently as you wait your turn at the ATM. They are recognisable because – in many cases – they are our lives, taken from everyday lived experience then stretched a little bit past reality just to see what might happen.

In Nine Perfect Strangers Moriarty uses a classic recipe to extend this idea a little further. Take a group of disparate people, ensure that each is struggling with some recent trauma or buried secret in danger of resurfacing, throw them together in an isolated environment, and add a touch of eccentric host who just might be on the wrong side of sane.

It’s a technique Agatha Christie used to great effect, sealing her characters into a broken-down train; or an archaeological dig surrounded by impassable desert; or a houseboat travelling down the river Nile.

To Moriarty, a health retreat named Tranquillum House located somewhere in rural New South Wales will do just as well. And so, nine individuals – a family, a couple, and four singles – find themselves at the mercy of Masha, an ex-Russian, ex-corporate, ex-heart-attack-in-waiting now transformed into a sleek goddess of wellness just waiting to facilitate them (or push them, if necessary) into a new life.

Christie created her groups of strangers from archetypes of her day, instantly recognisable to her audience. Moriarty does the same. There are the middle-aged divorcees — male and female — questioning their life decisions; the mother whose husband has left her for a younger, tauter model; and a family traumatised by an unforeseen grenade life has chosen to lob at them from the sidelines. Then there are the more modern archetypes: the young couple struggling to negotiate the pressures of both good fortune and social media, and the man with all the trappings of privilege on the outside, crumbling slowly away from within.

It’s not giving much away to say that things don’t go exactly as planned. But still Moriarty places a few gentle hints that this experiment in cleaner living may not be quite what the paying guests were anticipating. As one discovers during an initial tour of the premises:

‘As you may know, Tranquillum House was built in 1856, and this is the original red cedar and rosewood staircase,’ said Yao. ‘Other people have commented on the resemblance to the Titanic’s staircase.’

Although time is given to each of the characters, the main story focus is on Frances Welty, a twice-divorced writer of old-fashioned romances, and Yao, a young paramedic by training, now a key employee of the health farm. Through them, we see events unfold from both sides of the divide – those who have paid to experience the 10-day transformative program, and those tasked to deliver it. However, despite his position as Masha’s right-hand man, there are elements of her New Protocol that are opaque even to Yao. And right from the beginning, some of the stipulated rules of the retreat start to take on echoes of other types of facilities – those populated by inmates rather than guests.

In the initial period known as ‘the silence’, eye contact is forbidden. No one may speak. They must move by walking ‘mindfully’, placing each foot in front of the other with extreme and intentional care. Then one guest, Tony Hogburn, makes another discovery: ‘He jutted his chin. “Did someone go through our bags?”’

Is Nine Perfect Strangers as good as Big Little Lies? Certainly Nicole Kidman seems to think so, with the announcement that her production company has bought the film and television rights. And it is also true that, although personal reading tastes do vary, Moriarty is a safe pair of hands. If you liked her earlier works, you are likely to enjoy this. And it is lighter in nature than The Husband’s Secret, for example, making it an easier story to swallow. Like all good health-farm medicine.

Liane Moriarty Nine Perfect Strangers Pan Macmillan 2018 PB 512pp $32.99

Sally Nimon once graduated from university with an Honours degree majoring in English literature and has hung around higher education ever since. She is also an avid reader and keen devourer of stories, whatever the genre.

You can buy Nine Perfect Strangers from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here.

To see if it is available from Newtown Library, click here.



Tags: Australian women writers, Big Little Lies, Liane | Moriarty, The Husband's Secret


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