Revenge

*Highly Commended Fiction — Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021*

'Before I go into my grave,' she says out loud, 'I will kill that man.'

A brilliant new novel from the author of Real Differences.

A family favour their son over their daughter. Shan attends university before making his fortune in Australia while Yannie must find menial employment and care for her ageing parents. After her mother's death, Yannie travels to Sydney to become enmeshed in her psychopathic brother's new life, which she seeks to undermine from within …

This is a novel that rages against capitalism, hetero-supremacy, mothers, fathers, families – the whole damn thing. It's about what happens when you want to make art but are born in the wrong time and place.

S. L. Lim brings to vivid life the frustrations of a talented daughter and vengeful sister in a nuanced and riveting novel that ends in the most unexpected way. It will not be easily forgotten.

'Told in three parts, Revenge is a unique bildungsroman about an older woman on a quest for self-determination and the heartbreak she endures to find herself. A fiercely feminist novel about a woman's life put to a standstill by gender bias, sexual repression and the expectations of family, Revenge is also about the weaponisation of familial love and the tragedy of unfulfilled dreams. Lim's astute rendering of the subtleties of familial power dynamics makes this novel powerful reading for all.' — Cher Tan, Books+Publishing