The Conversion

by Amanda Lohrey

From Miles Franklin Award-winning author Amanda Lohrey comes a stunning literary foray into place, grief, and what makes a home.

The conversion was Nick's idea.

Nick- so persuasive, ever the optimist, still boyishly handsome. Always on a quest to design the perfect environment, convinced it could heal a wounded soul.

The conversion was Nick's idea, but it's Zoe who's here now, in a valley of old coalmines and new vineyards, working out how to live in a deconsecrated church.

What to do with all that vertical space, those oppressive stained-glass windows? Can a church become a home or, even with all its vestiges removed, will it remain forever what it was intended to be?

For Zoe, alone and troubled by a ghost from the recent past, the little church seems empty of the possibilities Nick enthused about. She is stuck in purgatory-until a determined young teacher pushes her way into Zoe's life, convinced of her own peculiar mission for the building.

Melanie has something of Nick's unquenchable zeal about her. And it's clear to Zoe that she won't take no for an answer.

The Conversion is a startling novel about the homes we live in- how we shape them, and how they shape us. Like Amanda Lohrey's bestselling The Labyrinth, it is distinguished by its deep intelligence, eye for human drama and effortless readability.

Genres: Fiction, Australia, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Literature, Novels

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2023

About the author

Amanda Lohrey is a novelist and essayist. She was educated at the University of Tasmania and Cambridge. She lectured in Writing and Textual Studies at the Sydney University of Technology (1988-1994), and since 2002 at the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.

Reviews

[Jodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed my first two novels by Amanda Lohrey—The Labyrinth and Vertigo: A Novella—but this new, recently published novel... well, the only thing I can say about it is, it was unremarkable. Others may love it, but it didn't strike a chord with me—not even a bit. I found it bland and devoid of emotion, although I did read it 'til the very end. That's quite unusual for me. Looking back, I believe I may have been too quick to DNF some of my books, so despite not being "wowed" by this one, I am glad I finished it.

So, this rating is kind of a rarity for me...

2 “It-was-just-OK”stars ⭐⭐ 🤷‍♀️

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having enjoyed The Labyrinth so much last year, I couldn't resist the opportunity to read an advance copy of Amanda Lohrey's new novel. That, and the fact I've been watching a lot of restoration/renovation shows on TV lately. In any case, it seemed like a sure bet - and it was. It didn't quite have the same impact on me as the award-winner, but I think anyone who enjoyed that novel will be happy with this one too.

In the face of changing financial circumstances, and having become empty-nesters, Nick and Zoe are considering a tree-change. Nick's quite keen on a small, newly deconsecrated church in rural NSW, but he's having trouble getting Zoe across the line. She keeps stalling, lacking the same vision for the place that Nick has.

A year passes. Ultimately it's quite an unexpected and sudden decision that sees Zoe arriving in Crannock to take possession of the church, alone. She's still uncertain how to turn the building into a home, but the intent is there. Before long she has a job at the local hospital, and is beginning to feel a sense of belonging in the town. Each time she tries to make a start on the conversion of her church, she finds she can't get past the problem of what to do with the windows. And then the local high school drama teacher comes to Zoe with a proposition.

This is a short, quiet novel that covers a lot of ground. Lohrey's writing is elegant and her ideas are clever and interesting. Recommended to all admirers of literary fiction.

With thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for an advance copy to read and review.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written and intense, I was drawn into this book and found it hard to stop reading even though the characters themselves didn’t grab me and I’m not sure that I understood all the imagery. Zoe and her husband Nick are thinking of a move to the country and Nick gets enthused about an old church going cheap but Zoe doesn’t like the idea. Then after Nicks death she goes ahead and buys it anyway. There’s many themes, grief and memory, betrayal, solitude, nature, religion and community.
A good novel but not one I loved.

[Text Publishing]

The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of The Conversion

‘The Conversion takes on a dreamy tone to explore the complexities of love, loss, family and home…The process of grief is rarely logical and straightforward, and in reflecting this, the book holds true.’
Books+Publishing

‘Lohrey delves into grief-induced purgatory and the meaning of home, especially in times of upheaval.’
Harper’s Bazaar

‘Buy this one. [Amanda Lohrey’s] brilliant.’
Australian

‘Written in Lohrey’s familiar economical prose and exhibiting a fascination with the space we inhabit, The Conversion is an absorbing fiction of dealing with people and events from the past, and finding a way into the future.’
Age

‘One of the things Lohrey does is to take quite portentious, serious things and put them in ordinary contexts and see if they work, see what they mean when you put them in that setting.’
James Ley, ABC RN Bookshelf

‘We see [Lohrey’s] interest in place, in buildings, in physical spaces, but also in therapy and psychiatry…I really enjoy what Amanda Lohrey has done by keeping us guessing in this novel.’
Kate Evans, ABC RN Bookshelf

‘Astonishing and beguiling.’
Canberra Times

‘Amanda Lohrey’s ninth novel, The Conversion, is filled with intrusions, insistence, and ghosts…In this blazing, layered, bravura novel, Lohrey probes the dreamed, remembered, and hoped-for in an anatomy of freedom and aftermath.’
Felicity Plunkett, Australian Book Review

‘This is what Lohrey does best: she seeks to appreciate the internal ponderings of many and then to package them into a compassionate story, using characters that are finely attuned to our own meandering thoughts…This novel is perfect for long-term fans and alos for readers of Ann Patchett and Alice Munro. Their ability to record every day ordinariness is what makes these writers extraordinary. Read The Conversion to be still, and to marvel.’
Readings Monthly

‘Lohrey delves into the places we call home, exploring the intricate dance between our influence on them and their transformative impact on us.’
ArtsHub

'The Conversion delves into what it means to change one thing into another thing, exploring ideas of conversion that range from everyday renovation to the allure of religious cults and the meaning of our ever-updating culture.’
Conversation

‘The distinctive depth of characterisation shines in this tightly knitted story.’
Australian Women’s Weekly

‘Lohrey revisits the terrain of her Miles Franklin Award-winning The Labyrinth to create another meditative and rewarding read.’
Good Weekend

‘Beautifully written.’
Adelaide Advertiser

[Theresa Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

If it were possible for a novel to be entirely perfect, then The Conversion would easily fit the bill as the example text. How I loved this novel. I listened to it, and the narration was beautifully done, but of course, a novel has to be well written in the first place for a narrator to be able to do a good job of it. I feel like I’m rambling, but I can’t help it. This novel. My heart.

First, there is the whole part about living in and converting a church into a dwelling. This was fascinating, I had no idea this was being done, to be honest. There are a couple of churches in the city where I live that have been converted into business space, but to live in? It hadn’t crossed my mind. I dwelled often while listening to this one about how I would feel about living in a church and what I’d want it to look like if I did. I could understand Zoe’s reservations, but also understood the appeal.

Next, we have the grief. And in this, I don’t necessarily mean grief over losing a husband. Rather, grief over losing the life you thought you were living, the future you had thought you were going to get. How devastating, to have a person you have loved for so long destroy everything about your lives together and then have the audacity to die, leaving you unable to grieve in the way you would have been able to if circumstances were different.

And Zoe. How much I enjoyed her as a protagonist. I really related to her as a mother of two sons who are as different to each other as Zoe’s were. I related to her as a woman who has reached an age where she wants her work to be meaningful yet easy and stress free. I related to her own personal conversion, the exorcism of ghosts within, and the embracing of a new and slower life, filled with the things and the people that matter.

This is brilliant Australian fiction. Truly divine. It’s my first read of Amanda Lohrey but now I’m eager to read everything else she has written. She writes with a deep intelligence, inviting the reader into a state of introspection and contemplation. Every word, every sentence; it all just flowed so smoothly and was such a joy to read.

[Boy Blue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't judge a book by it's cover they say. But what's a boy to do when the cover is a picture of his favourite black cockatoos?

Every year in Maroubra there are two signs I look for. The first is the arrival of the Black Cockatoos, generally marking the end of summer and the start of autumn. The second is the arrival of the humpback whales, generally marking the beginning of winter.

A few years ago on a late April afternoon I was driving home through my suburb after a light sunshower, I had the window down and that rich earthy smell of petrichor was floating in the air. Suddenly a familiar, piercing cry, halfway between a laugh and a sob cut through the blissful afternoon. Overhead a raucous mob of Black Cockatoos wheeled and soared. Autumn is finally here I thought.

There is a small park and playground out the front of our apartment block and it is a community oasis that draws all the locals from the surrounding buildings. A few weeks after my first sighting of the cockatoos I was talking to a neighbour in the park when the mob flew overhead cartwheeling and crying out. I said to the lady, let's call her Rosemary, "did you know the local aboriginal people believe black cockatoos are a portent of rain". She was quite taken by this.

Fast forward a month and I was back in the park talking to a different neighbour when the cockatoos again flew overhead, we talked about how much we loved them and then she turned to me and said "Rosemary was telling me they're an omen of rain." Fast forward another month and again I was in the park with a group of people while the cockatoos were shredding some banksia cones in a tree nearby. Sure enough someone pipes up, "apparently they're an omen of rain". It should be noted that the last 3 interactions were all on sunny days. It seems the black cockatoos have become more of an omen of being told that it's going to rain, than actual rain. But there's something about the cockatoos as an omen of rain that really sticks in the mind. They have such a remarkable cry, and also the most playful behaviour. They revel in life it's as if they're celebrating the coming of the rain. But there's also something deep within us city dwellers that longs for that connection with nature and these vibrant cockatoos seem to cut through the urban jungle and connect us back to the beating heart of nature.

Of course the last line of this book is.

The valley is still in drought and the flight of the black cockatoo is said to be a harbinger of rain.

[Tundra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story has a brilliant premise and setting but somehow went astray. For me the connection between characters, the way they spoke and acted toward each other, did not feel realistic or just lacked subtlety. For example, Zoe’s initial reaction to Sophie felt overly dramatic ,particularly in the way she discussed her with Nick. Also, a number of characters (who were extremely interesting) - Melanie, Travis, Zoe’s children, McAlester’s daughter, the Reverend- seemed to be important but were then dropped from the story without resolution.
I really wanted to like this more. The idea of how we live and change (or are changed) by the spaces we live in is conceptually fascinating.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, but one that I am not sure about.

The premise of the story is interesting, where/how we live in buildings and how this has an impact on who we are, but I am not sure that it fully delivered on this idea. The story meandered with no central story underlining everything, with the central point of why the church was actually purchase never explained or really suggested at.

A disappointing story.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautiful story from this author. A shorter read.
I am settling into the idea that these books resonate incredibly well with the more senior woman reader. Many of us in this bracket have lived lives that often encompass some of the tangles of the characters within these pages.
I will be interested to see how they are received by folk other than those within my age range.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, I do love a clever title.  A conversion can refer to a religious conversion, a change of heart about something or someone, or property conversion where a building is repurposed into something else.  Amanda Lohrey's sparkling new novel The Conversion plays with all of these, but begins with the repurposing of a church.

As the novel starts Zoe and her  husband Nick have been sideswiped by the financial crash.  It bleeds money out of their assets, and they are going to have to sell their handsome Federation villa they had worked on with such loving care. Nick, ever the optimist, turns this disaster into an opportunity to reinvent themselves.  They have become stale and complacent,  he says, an established middle-class couple trundling along in their comfortable cocoon, tut-tutting at the television and taking expensive holidays.  But they can start over, he says.  He can set up a part-time practice as a psychologist, and she won't need to return to her work as a solicitor.

Nick has always been about the possibility of the new. The world was there to be remade, over and over, and anything less was stagnation. If friends began to talk earnestly about their family tree, as they seemed increasingly to do as they aged, he would look at Zoe and roll his eyes.  He had little interest in history and above all he despised nostalgia: nostalgia was a form of weakness, emotional and spiritual laziness.  The secret of life was to live in a dynamic present illuminated by the light of the possible. (p.11)

As Nick bombards Zoe with his proposal to sell up in Sydney and move to one of those charming little towns that in recent years were being revitalised, the power dynamic in this marriage is revealed.  He's sixty-three but she still fancies him, and over the course of a long marriage she has learned to expect that his enthusiasms would wane, soon to be replaced by something else. For his part, he can count on her inertia and her inability to come up with an alternative solution to their straitened circumstances, to get his own way despite her doubts.

Nick is not only oh-so-persuasive, he is also sly.  Something that Zoe has yet to learn about him.  When they make their way to the countryside to view a church as a potential home, it takes a while for her to realise that this trip is not just the impulse he had implied.

The setting is recognisable as the Hunter Valley, home to coal mines and vineyards and tourism.  Not too far from Sydney, it's gentrifying as the nation's economy de-carbonises and the coal industry has to adjust.

And then, before anything has been resolved, Nick dies — in circumstances that reveal his feet of clay.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/11/22/t...

[Anne Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

To pick up an Amanda Lohrey novel is to be drawn in from the first page. A subtext of underlying themes however inevitably enriches the experience and prompts reflections that endure beyond the end of the book. This is very much the case with her latest novel, “The Conversion”.

The story begins with a middle-aged couple who decide to sell their suburban Federation villa and buy a deconsecrated church in the country. As events unfold the bricks and mortar conversion is echoed in the self-renovation of Zoe, the protagonist. When calamitous events leave her grappling with grief, disorientation, betrayal and shattered self-belief, moving forward becomes as much of a dilemma as integrating stained glass windows, altars, fonts, and other ecclesiastical effects within a conventional home. As she discovers, heavenward aspiring church architecture with its insistence on the vertical is unsuited to the domestic space, and the quandary of how to reframe the original purpose of the building without desecrating it provokes anxieties on unexpected levels.

Perfect harmony in the material sense proves as illusory an aspiration for Zoe as reconstructing a future without rationalising past losses. Disconcerting visitations of a ghost from her recent past not only keep her awake at night but threaten to topple the fragile identity she’s striving to build.
“The Conversion” is a quieter book than Lohrey’s Miles Franklin Literary Award winner “The Labyrinth” and as such may attract less acclaim, however as an incisive commentary on contemporary material, social and cultural values it’s startlingly revealing.

Review published in December edition of Good Reading Magazine

[Penelope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amanda Lohrey is such a good author and this book confirmed that for me.

[Sallie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I am off to buy a country church. I was actually very sad to finish it, I had been racing home from work eager to read more. Feeling lost and finding it hard to start another book.
This Amanda Lohrey has created a sense of place so well. I had previously read ‘The Labyrinth’ which also had a slow languid feeling and wonderful ambiance.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book by this author and it was one that got me thinking. Told from the POV of Zoe, we are treated to her memories of life worth get beloved husband Nick who wanted to but and convert a country church.

There are feelings of dissociation from FMC; apathy about the church, about Nick. The only real emotion we see in the first part is toward Sophie and even then we don't really feel it. We experience her memory of the anger, which seems a little irrational at the time.

The end of part 1 is disturbing and that occasional, ongoing juxtaposition of the normal, the contented everyday with horror of what people can do kept jolting me out of the prose.

Ultimately, there was no resolution here. Just a continuation of the themes of grief, betrayal, family and moving on with life as best you can.

The idea of the spaces we live in changing us rather was interesting.

[Rachel]

I found The Conversion to be an interesting story - I liked reading a snapshot of Zoe, who has recently experienced some big changes in her life.

Zoe's circumstances and history reveal themselves over the story, and there’s much to learn. She’s now at the point where she needs to make some decisions about what happens next.

It’s not a long book, but I feel like I learned about Zoe, as well as from the small portraits of the people around her in a country town.

There’s not an easy conclusion to the novel. I believed that Zoe had a life before the book began, and her life will continue on afterwards. It all felt very real to me.

[Anna Hamilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely should not have finished this book.

If you read the blurb, like I did, and think oh this could be a cute telling of renovation mayhem in a church - it is not. If you think it will inspire or motivate you to search for a church listing and buy it, and CONVERT it (as in.....what the book is "about").....it won't.
This is a book about a woman who has some stuff happen in her life that HAPPENS to also include a side story of living in a church for a minute.

Argh.

[Dion Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to read it with my local book club, I usually read almost all horror, so keep that in mind when considering my review.

The premise for this story sounded good, but I found it a bit flat and unremarkable, and the story didn't really go very far, and I had trouble connecting or caring about the characters.

It was well writing and easy to read, but in the end, if wasn't for me.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Lohrey a few years ago, and was keen to see if The Conversion matched my initial experience. It did. Lohrey writes about places and spaces with extraordinary skill - a totally immersive reading experience. This book has interesting layers (Lisa explores them in her thorough review) - at the face it's about the conversion of a church into a home but that undersells the guts of this novel - it's about who we are in a relationship (and who we think we are); it's about the changes that life-stages force upon us; and it's about grief and anger. I hope this book gets made into a film - it will be visually spectacular.

4/5

I received my copy of The Conversion from the publisher, Text Publishing, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Thomas Martiniello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite sure how I felt about this one… it was a simple read but I don’t really understand what it was about or what actually happened? It wasn’t bad by any means but didn’t leave me wanting to keep coming back to it.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

A puzzle

[Helen Blunden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Failed to grab me unfortunately.

[will e · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really didn’t do much for me and feeling like the 3 stars is a little generous… her last book The Labyrinth was a real favourite of mine so I guess it’s hard to follow. Nice final paragraph.

[Lesley Moseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every minute of this wonderfully written and narrated audiobook. Do hope there is a sequel, as I felt I knew the people and town. Wish it was twice as long as I have such trouble finding PERFIK experiences, like this.

[Sharon Albanese · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm.... I kept reading this story and wondering when something was going to happen. A woman decides to have a tree change, so she buys an old church and renovates it. She makes some friends in the small town, gets a job, can't decide how she wants to renovate the church- does she keep the stained glass windows or not? Okay. Then... not much happens. The blurb at the back is quite deceptive, too. She makes friends with the local teacher. Not she doesn't really, they meet, then.... nothing happens really. I'm not sure what the point of all this was. Did I miss something?

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of moving to a church and starting afresh is a good start for a novel. There are delicate hints that all was not well in Zoe's marriage before her husband’s death. Gradually, Zoe comes to terms with her past and makes plans for her future. This is a gentle novel, with depths of meaning, but somehow, I couldn’t really get invested in Zoe herself.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written reflection on putting your life together after seismic changes have intervened. Lohrey takes us on a journey using a church, a play, a new job and friends to follow the thinking behind the coping mechanisms of what seems natural, day to day but it is actually what keeps us going. Reflections on the power of houses and living spaces was especially interesting in what where we live could mean. Her characters, led by Zoe are real , even the drama teacher, everyone is working through their own issues. Should be in a quiet place in the country for maximum effect. Thanks to @netgalley for an advance copy to review in return for an unbiased review.

[Danielle]

This is my first reading of the author. I listened to her interviewed on the ABC Book Show and was interested in the central action of church renovation and the concept of conversion most often associated with adopting a religious belief, an idea or way of being, explored alongside the protagonists experience of loss and associated anger and grief.
The writing is well paced and moves the reader through several periods of time seamlessly providing background and deepening our understanding of what 'Zoe' has gone through and is going through. As the readers understanding grows of the character we are better able to empathise with the unfolding experience of building a new life in a deconsecrated church on a hill in a small rural community. A supporting cast of old friends, family and new local acquaintance entangle their threads in her lifes tapestry bringing movement and form that expands the story from the compass point to be more universal and creating a picture that is positively nuanced, answering some but not all of the questions that our new character friend is facing and will face in the future. I leave the book wishing her well and wondering with curious delight on what i've just read and what thinking on this further my provide to me.
The story telling craft of this writer is well honed, the read is deceptively easy but much more it provokes thoughts, is gently funny, relatable and interesting. I look forward to reading more from Amanday Lohrey.

[Jennifer Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of a relationship breakdown in slow motion, as the background of the choices the couple had made to relocate, as a new start in a rural Australian town. Zoe's husband had been keen to buy the de-consecrated church while she had been less enthusiastic but finally she bought it after he had died in an accident precipitated by his affair with a patient.
This gave her a link to her husband Nick who had been lost to her but had loved the possibilities the house gave them for a new start.
Her new home, and job in the local hospital, helped her settle into the community and make friends, as well as start to change the church into a home.
This is a gentle story, of a woman getting over the loss in her life, but making a new start and learning to love it.
I really loved this book and would recommend it

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially I thought this novel a little underwhelming, but I found myself settling into the pace of a slow and simple life. I don't often think of the spaces we live in. The church that protagonist Zoe embarks on restoring is awkward with vertical space and then there is the problem of what to with the stain glass windows. The book was like a meditation on the church and takes the reader into the art and meaning of architecture and how such a building was designed to honour God.

Also enjoyable was the relatable small country community and the characters that lived there. I found I missed this book once I'd finished it.