Shortlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize

An Uncertain Grace – Krissy Kneen

Fiction · Text Publishing

An Uncertain Grace

About the Book

Some time in the near future, university lecturer Caspar receives a gift from a former student called Liv: a memory stick containing a virtual narrative. Hooked up to a virtual reality bodysuit, he becomes immersed in the experience of their past sexual relationship. But this time it is her experience. What was for him an erotic interlude, resonant with the thrill of seduction, was very different for her—and when he has lived it, he will understand how.

Later…

A convicted paedophile recruited to Liv’s experiment in collective consciousness discovers a way to escape from his own desolation.

A synthetic boy, designed by Liv’s team to ‘love’ men who desire adolescents, begins to question the terms of his existence.

L, in transition to a state beyond gender, befriends Liv, in transition to a state beyond age.

Liv herself has finally transcended the corporeal—but there is still the problem of love.

An Uncertain Grace is a novel in five parts by one of Australia’s most inventive and provocative writers. Moving, thoughtful, sometimes playful, it is about who we are—our best and worst selves, our innermost selves—and who we might become.

An Uncertain Grace is a formally ingenious and often amusing novel that combines eroticism and science fiction with a playful spirit of intellectual inquisitiveness..”

– 2018 Stella Prize Judges

Krissy Kneen

About the Author


Krissy Kneen

Krissy Kneen is the award-winning author of the memoir Affection, the novels SteeplechaseTriptychThe Adventures of Holly White and the Incredible Sex Machine, and the Thomas Shapcott Award–winning poetry collection Eating My Grandmother. She has written and directed broadcast documentaries for SBS and ABC television.

Further Reading


Reviews

“Kneen’s imaginative leap towards a transhuman world is endlessly curious and inventive, provocative and inspiring.” Cameron Woodhead, The Sydney Morning Herald

“An Uncertain Grace is a strange, daring and clever novel and Kneen’s openness to connections that many other novelists never dream of making is exhilarating.” Catriona Menzies-Pike, Sydney Review of Books

“With its page-turning clarity, her writing is as compassionate and empowering as it is edgy and provocative.” Doug Wallen, The Australian

Links

Listen to Krissy discuss An Uncertain Grace on ABC’s Books and Arts.

Read Krissy’s Books that Changed Me in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Read Krissy’s ‘What I’m Reading’ in Meanjin.

Watch Krissy in The Wheeler Centre’s ‘What the Hell? The Handmaid’s Tale in 2017’ panel for The Festival of Questions.

 

Judges’ Report


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