We All Lived in Bondi Then

by Georgia Blain

From the author of the multi-award-winning bestseller Between a Wolf and a Dog, a powerful collection of previously unpublished stories.

A sister is haunted by the consequences of a simple mistake. A daughter searches for certainty as her mother’s memory degrades. An encounter at a house party changes the course of a life.

In We All Lived in Bondi Then, beloved Australian author Georgia Blain returns to her resonant themes of relationships and family, illness and health, love and death. Composed in Blain’s final years, these nine stories grapple with large questions on a human scale, brimming with her trademark acuity, nuance, and warmth.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Australia, Family

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Georgia Blain has published novels for adults and young adults, essays, short stories, and a memoir. Her first novel was the bestselling Closed for Winter, which was made into a feature film. She was shortlisted for numerous awards including the NSW and SA Premiers' Literary Awards, and the Nita B. Kibble Award for her memoir Births Deaths Marriages. Georgia's works include The Secret Lives of Men, Too Close to Home, and the YA novel Darkwater. In 2016, in addition to Between a Wolf and a Dog, Georgia also published the YA novel Special. She lived in Sydney, where she worked full-time as a writer.

Reviews

[John Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I ever finish my TBR list in maybe 50 years and decide to revisit any old books or authors, Georgia Blain would be at the top of my list. Her writing can be so close to the bone, so spot on, that it does something inside me.

I have a long indirect relationship with Georgia, her mum spoke to a group of youth workers back in the early noughties about her book Resilience and Anne's book 'Tell Me I'm Here' about her son's Schizophrenia and eventual suicide, it was Georgia, the neglected sister in the story, that always stuck with me.

This posthumous book of short stories, although all short, are all powerful, some more than others. A couple visit dementia and death, as her mother died within a week of Georgia's own death from a brain tumour (as my father). The third story I found the weakest, mostly in that the story and characters were never actually established.

I found these stories as powerful as any she's written. The introduction by Charlotte Wood is spot on and shows the love and respect she had for Georgia. Short and sweet, five solid stars for me with this library ebook.

[jaz ₍ᐢ. ̫.ᐢ₎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a brilliant little read, starting with a sentimental and beautiful foreword written by Charlotte Wood that really set the tone for the rest of the book. This is a collection of short stories found unpublished by Georgia Blain. A melancholic tone and vibrancy that had me underlining alot of passages throughout!

Thankyou to Scribe for sending me a copy to review

[Theresa Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy it was to read this collection of previously unpublished stories written by the late, and certainly great, Georgia Blain. Each story was, to me, a slice of perfection. Her resonant themes of relationships and family, illness and health, love and death are very much all I seem to want to read about of late, stories that are driven by character and revolve around theme in place of tiresome plots that have been seen over and over. I’m getting more and more fussy with each passing month.

‘It’s strange how often we long for life to move forward; I just have to get through this, we think, as though the past, with all its fears and fuck-ups and anxieties, can be completely left behind, neat, contained, never spilling over the line we imagine is waiting for us. And yet the past is always there, hovering at the edge, teasing us, reappearing when we least expect it, and then sliding away again, where it waits, the warmth of its breath reminding us that it still lives.’

Each story is a complete picture, everything you need to know, with no threads left hanging, no questions left unanswered. Tiny little masterpieces. What a skilful writer Georgia Blain was. How lucky we are to have been left with something more from her.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

[Carol - Reading Writing and Riesling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply moving, thought provoking, ending too soon.


This is not just a book for those who enjoy the short story genre. This is a book for those who love great writing, emotive and evocative prose and a fabulous sense of place, even if that place maybe somewhere buried deep in side you.

This read is not melancholy but I grapple to find the words to explain just how deeply personal yet relatable these words are. Bitter sweet...yes a touch of bitter sweet, a touch of sadness...a touch of hope, words reaching out to your heart.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I loved the evenings in Bondi, the drift of the salt off the sea, the bruised gold of the ocean, the laziness of people strolling along the promenade, and the flicker of the streetlights as they came on, high above the beachfront ... Far off at the south end I could see the white walls of Icebergs, darkening. The north was still lit by the last rays of the sun, and in between the waved heaved, slow and sure, a swell that had risen with the full moon."

What a pleasure to be able to immerse myself in the work of one of my favourite Australian authors, but at the same time such a sense of sadness that these wonderful stories were published posthumously.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Teeya · Rating 5 out of 5]

short stories are hard to do right. it always seems like there’s one or two that never work quite right. but wow, I wish I’d found Georgia Blain earlier. the most beautiful writing, I can’t even begin to explain how each story made me feel. a true testament to talent

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

We All Lived in Bondi Then is a posthumously published short story collection from the late Georgia Blain (1964-2016).  The stories were written between 2012 and 2015, intended for publication some time after Between a Wolf and a Dog (2016), which turned out to be her last novel though she did not know that until she was editing it for publication. (It was not her last book, that was the posthumously published The Museum of Words: A Memoir of Language, Writing, and Mortality (2017).

These stories traverse preoccupations that are familiar to readers of Blain's fiction.  Difficult siblings with incomprehensible personalities; ambiguous mother-daughter relationships; grief and loss; resentment and loyalty; disappointment with the self and others; and the contemporary scourges of disconnection, drug addiction, intemperate drinking and Alzheimer's Disease.

The collection of nine stories comprises:

Australia Square
Dear Professor Brewster
Far from home
Last days
Last one standing
Ship to shore
Still breathing
Sunday
We all lived in Bondi then

'Australia Square' is a heart-rending story.  Parents on the verge of splitting up hire a French au pair who brings the children, a girl and a baby boy in a pram, to the father's work. She has a dental appointment so the children are to have lunch with the father.  But on the forty-seventh floor, a brief, innocent distraction sends the lift away — with the pram still in it.  The reverberations from this event spiral down through the years.  Relationships sever in the aftermath as the mystery of the child's disappearance haunts them.

More and more of us are experiencing the loss of a loved one to dementia or Alzheimer's Disease, and in 'Dear Professor Brewster' the narrator's halting progress towards having her mother diagnosed is all too familiar.  Something seems wrong long before the dots are joined, and then there are the decisions about care options, made with or without the cooperation of the afflicted one. And the thing is, life is going on in other ways at the same time.  It's incredibly stressful, and then there's the anxiety about the possible genetic inheritance.  Blain captures this perfectly in 'Dear Professor Brewster' but it's difficult to read...

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/03/08/w...

[Suzie B · Rating 5 out of 5]

How fortunate are we that a collection of short stories by Georgia Blain has been found! I absolutely adored each of these stories and read the book in one sitting, cover to cover. There is an underlying theme of loss in most of the stories. Georgia has the ability to immediately draw you into each story and leaves you wanting more at the end. I highly recommend this book.

[Joanne Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a treasure!!! Another book by Georgie Blain .. such beautiful thought provoking writing. She had such a talent..

[Debbie Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely read Australian writers. I shouldn’t admit it, but it is because I’m just an armchair traveller at heart. I tend to read novels set in the last century or somewhere else in the world. Georgia Blain is the exception. This is my fifth book by Georgia Blain and it was a wonderful read. I’m so sad there won’t be any more books by her but I’m grateful for this late, last one.
There are nine stories in the collection and some crucial moments in two of them will never leave me. I’ve noticed that my favourite stories differ from other reviewers and that is a good thing – there is something for everyone in this collection.
For me the weakest stories are the last two. I found the title story We All Lived in Bondi Then, which is the last, interesting. (Blain is always interesting) But it didn’t speak to me as I’ve never house-shared or lived that sort of life and found as a result I wasn’t very vested in what happened to the protagonists. Ditto the story Still Breathing. In the second last story, Sunday, well I just didn’t know what to make of it although I have a dog. The story is so different from what she normally writes.
For me the most powerful and well written story is the first, Australia Square. I was once taken to the restaurant on top, too, as a child and also wondered why the round tower was called Australia Square. The narrator recalls a terrifying incident in a lift where her baby brother is trapped. Blain is so skilful in moments like these:
“And that was it.
Such a simple mistake.
An accident that could have happened to anyone.
We were there in the lobby, and Lewis was gone.”
Blain then deftly switches to the present. The narrator is at the premiere of her documentary with her father. Her mother has previously died. Lewis is there too and obviously damaged mentally in some way. Moving between the past and the present we, as readers, discover the full extent of the tragedy. I particularly loved Blain’s depiction of the nanny.
In Dear Professor Brewster Alice’s mother is suffering from some sort of dementia, just as mine is, so it made for painful reading bur somehow also comforting to read about even a character going through the same worries as me. The next story Far From Home touches on the same themes. Sione is holidaying somewhere (maybe India) with her mother who is not well and similar to Alice’s mother. Here is a passage I can really relate to:
“I’d like to go to the bathroom,” her mother said, insisting she could manage on her own.
And Sione let her, partly because it was always a matter of flip-flopping around on the line that divided holding onto some semblance of independence for her mother, and recognising that this was foolish. But the truth was, she was also eager to have any chance to get away from her.”
The storyline then veers off into a completely different direction from the previous story, the ending particularly effective.
Last Days looks at relationships and why they stop working. In this instance Annie stays home to look after their daughter while Kath earns more but sadly, as it is in a lesbian relationship, the baby can only have DNA from one parent. And it isn’t from the restless and sad Annie.

Last One Standing is a powerful and very evocative story and although not one of my favourites, it is complete in itself and beautifully descriptive.
In my other favourite story Ship to Shore Luisa escapes to a small rental on the coast somewhere. We learn in just a few brief lines what is the problem with the marriage and why Luisa needs time alone. What I love about this story is how vivid the place is that Luisa has found. The shabby house, the elderly neighbours, the isolation, the bush. There only seems to be a few people around and then there is Pixie a Jack Russell terrier who follows Luisa on her walks through the bush. There is also the boom of the ship to shore, startling Luisa the first time she hears it. While walking along a cliff path accompanied by Pixie, the unimaginable happens. Yes, I won’t be forgetting this one and Australia Square for quite some time. Four and a half stars.

[Steve Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of short stories featuring characters who all share one thing...ar some point they all lived in the Sydney seaside suburb of Bondi.

Blain captures the spirit of what it means to be an Aussie and a Sydneysider in this collection. It's also a look at how people look differently on experiences such as morality, grief and forgiveness.

[Felicity Waterford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful stories, and the first one Australia Square took my breath away at the thought. Such well written stories, some more appealing to me than others Ship to Shore and Still Breathing. I enjoyed her last book more Births Deaths and Marriages, but will take any writing of Georgia Blain.

[Tilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love...love LOVE! Honestly the fact that well-read people don't know much about Georgia Blain makes me so sad. She is criminally underrated. One of Australia's best writers. There is so much beauty and simplicity in these stories. Understated but so evocative.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection of eight short stories, being the author’s last published work.
(The book is 127 pages and feels like just over half a standard short story collection).

I enjoyed all the stories with my favourite story being ‘Dear Professor Brewstew’, which is about a daughter concerned with her mother’s memory loss. The daughter also has recently inherited a property owned by her father, who she never lived with or spoke to. The father had another family and the children from that family are contesting the father’s will, believing they should be entitled to a share of his property.

‘Australia Square’ is about the effect the disappearance of a six month baby has on a family.

‘Far from Home’ involves a mother and daughter going on a holiday and the daughter meeting a man she lost her virginity to when she was a teenager, many years ago.

‘Last one Stands’ is about an old woman and her old dog. The pair live alone, barely surviving in their independence.

This book was first published in 2024. Georgia Bain died in 2016.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

These posthumously published stories reflect the themes that inspired Blain’s fiction, especially in her later years. Couple and family relationships are central to her concerns, with the title story (which comes last in the collection) looking back with a tender smile at a character like her younger self. Her brother’s schizophrenia and death and her mother’s dementia inspire a number of the stories. She uses her experiences and transforms them into stories that are sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes wryly humorous. The introduction by Charlotte Wood is a fitting tribute to Georgia Blain as are the stories themselves.

[Milly Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my January goals this year is to read a different kind of book than I usually would, so this book full of short stories is what I chose.
It took some adjustment to get my head around a new plot and characters every 10-20 pages, but overall these stories were really moving and enjoyable.

[Elle Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories that get you so invested in the characters and story that you feel like you are halfway into a 300+ page book. Devoured it.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

was good

[Shazza Hoppsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a couple of stories still to go but and holding off finishing this beautiful compilation.
It’s so Australian. I feel she is writing about my life in places it’s so relatable. The sense of time and looking back at your young student self in Still Breathing sounded like young me - I was born at a similar time and went to the same University.
The loss and grief of Ship to Shore is, I am guessing set near Huskisson.
What a bloody loss.

“It’s strange how often we long for life to move forward;I just have to get through this, we think, as though the past, with all its fears and fuck-ups and anxieties, can be completely left behind, neatly, contained, never spilling over the line we imagine is waiting for us. And yet the past is always there, hovering at the edge, teasing us, reappearing when we least expect it, and then sliding away again, where it waits, the warmth of its breath reminding us that it still lives.”

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars
Loved the first 2 stories.

[Marianne Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories. Some great. Others not so.

[Elsa Termato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such potent little stories. So many different situations and types of people yet nearly all packed a big punch to me. What a talent to be able to depict nuanced character and feeling so simply and effectively. It was a pleasure to have some of my own past trawled back up to the surface again. Brilliant.

[Jillwilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s impossible to read this collection without thinking of the columns that Blain wrote for The Saturday Paper as her life was nearing its end. In 2016, at the age of 51, Georgia Blain died, her death being followed three days after by that of her mother, the writer, journalist, and filmmaker Anne Deveson. Blain wrote about the brain cancer that ended her life over the course of months, wrestling with the idea of euthanasia, with fear of losing her mind and obviously the impending death.

This book of short stories picks up some of these themes. I really loved it and wished that she had written more. The stories published here were written between 2012 and 2015. Most of the stories deal with the gap between what you might hope for in your life, and what has eventuated in reality. So there is a sad, slightly wistful tone to most although some are bleaker including Australia Square’ which depicts aa adult woman reflecting on the time when her baby brother went missing. He is returned to the family but he grows up with a significant mental illness. Blain writes of the mother’s reactions to these events: ““Hoping I would find a clear, concise explanation for her relentless attempts to retrieve my brother’s memory, perhaps some awareness of her own madness, maybe it was an apology I wanted or a glimpse of softness and love, even regret that she had lost me.” And In “Last Days”, a young mother is quite ambivalent about her role and drives off after cleaning her teeth to see how far a blackout extends, “but the blackness stretches forever”. A reviewer writes: “Blain charts the interval between young adult characters and their middle-aged analogues. The tension between desire and its curtailment recurs frequently – a feckless 20-something band member becomes a drama teacher, an actor who hasn’t had a job in years works in events administration – as does the hot shock of jagged history cutting into a life.“ (https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/c...)

My favourite story was ‘Dear Professor Brewster’, where a woman enters into an escalating set of emails with her mother’s doctor as they battle a dementia diagnosis. I would happily reread these stories; I really enjoyed the themes and the sense of place and character that they evoked.

PS - loved the cover!

[Gaby Meares · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found all these stories exquisite. Blain can communicate such a sense of sadness and melancholy without being sentimental.
Many of these stories are about loss and grief: loss of a parent to alzheimers; the grief that comes with lost opportunities, lost hopes and dreams; loss of the world as we know it.

It is strange how often we long for life to move forward: I just have to get through this, we think, as though the past, with all its fears and fuck-ups and anxieties, can be completely left behind, neat, contained, never spilling over the line we imagine is waiting for us. And yet the past is always there, hovering at the edge, teasing us, reappearing when we least expect it, and then sliding away again, where it waits, the warmth of its breath reminding us that it still lives.

In the last story with its titular title, Lucy remembers being twenty three and living in a flat with her boyfriend Henry who announces to their friends that they are getting married. It's a boozy party and she flirts outrageously with Jimmy. If I sound callous, it's because I was - or at least that's how my behaviour would be interpreted now that we're all in this different land, a land in which we understand the reason behind commitment. But then we were like moths, fluttering blindly towards whatever light flickered brightest. This certainly resonated with me as I look back on my behaviour in my twenties and it makes me cringe. Blain makes me understand that I am not alone, and not a bad person, and that we were just young.
This slender volume of only nine stories is to be treasured, and revisited often to savour their warmth and kindness, as we know there will be no more from this talented writer.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve sat with this beautiful, sentimental collection of short stories for several days, going back and rereading several of those that touched me the most. Published posthumously, they reflect some of Blain’s “intimate experiences of her own life and transforms [them], and in doing so reveals new and surprising discoveries for all of us. (Charlotte Ford, Foreward). The author does not shy away from writing “close to home”, the intense moments that have left her with indelible marks/wounds. Woods’ preface provides readers with a framework around which to better understand and feel Blain’s writing.

All the stories deal with characters whose lives have turned from the paths they had hoped for, imagined for themselves. Thus, there is a lingering sadness within the poignant narratives as characters mourn their lost dreams, the people they most loved, their youth, and often the self they had once been. In “Dear Professor Brewster”, for example, a daughter deals with the impact of her mother’s dementia, reflecting Blain’s grief over her own mother’s illness and the concern of her own inherited fate. Sadly, Blain died only three years after the death of her mother, author/journalist/presenter Anne Deveson.

“This is a powerful and vivid tapestry of life and love and the brutal quilt of human destiny.” (Carmel Bird, The Age, `1/2/24) It reflects the talent and “heart” of her several novels and reminds us that “Life will do with us as it will.”

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nine short stories

This collection of short stories by the late Georgia Blain (1964-2016) was published posthumously in 2024. I have delayed reading it, but a recent long road coach trip provided the perfect opportunity. In between stories, I gazed out of the window, moving from New South Wales to Victoria, reflecting on families, life, death and the passage of time.

The nine stories are:
Australia Square
Dear Professor Brewster
Far from home
Last days
Last one standing
Ship to shore
Still breathing
Sunday
We all lived in Bondi then

The story of Australia Square haunts me. The disappearance of a child and the impact of that disappearance. So many questions. And, in Dear Professor Brewster, a daughter corresponds with a doctor about her mother’s dementia. A family is fragmenting, a mother needs care, a daughter tries to hold it all together.

I kept reading, moving through the stories, recognising the familiarity of some situations, wondering ‘What if?’ in others. Ship to Shore had me on the edge of my seat, while Last One Standing had me acutely aware of the loneliness so many of us face as we age.

Each one of these stories is brilliantly self-contained. There’s a deftness in Ms Blain’s writing which directs the reader but does not control. Each story could be told in a novel, but it doesn’t need to be.

And yes, I intend to revisit these stories.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories, mostly engaging.
One particular moment stands out (in Ship To Shore)- a woman has left her husband to live in a shack after they have lost their 4yo child and both in depths pf grieving. Occasionally he rings, she picks up, they don't speak, but they stay on the line.
Australia Square - a young nanny reaches out to reunite a chid with a teddy/animal, the lift door closes and the younger child in the ram is lost for 2 weeks - no one ever knows what happened.
other concepts:
. illegitimate daughter, mother with alzheimers, dealing with Dr Brewster who seems to be ignoring it, while dealing with death of father, and then with step siblings over his will (dear professor brewster)
. mother dies while sione is sleeping with Michael

Some names are repeated, but I don't think the stories are intertwined, eg Simon is gay in Still Breathing (the glandular fever story), but is with Lucy at the end of We All Lived in Bondi Then, so likely not the same Simon. There's a Mikey Taylor and Michael Pavlou. There's also Lou (the 4 yo daughter of the gay couple) and Lou who is mixed up with Henry in We All Lived in Bondi Then.

[Marles Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story collection created by Georgia Blain, who passed away in 2016 seemed like such personal secret moments to glimpse into. They were private stories, moments in time that were full of emotion and aroused such a deep feeling inside. They were delicate and special moments that were coloured with hope and sadness, light and darkness. These stories also reflected a time in the author’s life that was full of moments in questioning life and death, and when I researched this about Georgia Blain, I was able to further embrace the delicateness of her touch around the transformation of life, and the sadness and reality of death.
There was no connection between each story, yet each time I started the next story, I left like I knew these characters from another time, possibly the last story. Yet there was no connecting force: there were names and faces that sounded the same, just in different scenarios and moments in time. Life and death is equally hard as each other, and all we can do in the moments in between is to love, be loved and connect with anyone and everyone who is willing to connect back with us.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Large changes, really, but against the enormity of that backdrop, all was small.”

This anthology of short stories covers stories of youth, of aging, of denial and acceptance, and the moments of connection along the way. The nature of the stories were written with insight and acuity into humanity, written with an undersold nuance and distinction. As with short stories, the author was able to insert the readers into a moment of time, drawing links and clues in a satisfying way. There was an interdependence between the natural environment and the human condition in a way that was fresh and understated. The stories about the experience of parents with dementia particularly hit with meaning.