Dancing on Knives

by Kate Forsyth

A damaged family and their generations of dangerous secrets

At twenty, Sara is tormented by an inexplicable terror so profound she hasn't left her home in five years. Like the mermaid in the fairytale her Spanish grandmother once told her, Sara imagines she is Dancing on Knives, unable to speak. She feels suffocated by her family, especially her father – the famous artist Augusto Sanchez – whose volcanic passions dominate their lives.

Then one stormy night, her father does not come home. His body is found dangling from a cliff face. Astonishingly, he is still alive, but the mystery of his fall can only be solved by the revelation of long-held family secrets.

At once a suspenseful murder mystery and a lyrical love story, Dancing on Knives is about how family can constrict and liberate us, how art can be both joyous and destructive, and how strength can be found in the unlikeliest places.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Coming Of Age

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2014

About the author

Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at the age of seven, and is now the internationally bestselling author of 40 books for both adults and children.

Her books for adults include 'Beauty in Thorns', the true love story behind a famous painting of 'Sleeping Beauty'; 'The Beast's Garden', a retelling of the Grimm version of 'Beauty & the Beast', set in the German underground resistance to Hitler in WWII; 'The Wild Girl', the love story of Wilhelm Grimm and Dortchen Wild, the young woman who told him many of the world's most famous fairy tales; 'Bitter Greens', a retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale; and the bestselling fantasy series 'Witches of Eileanan' Her books for children include 'The Impossible Quest', 'The Gypsy Crown', 'The Puzzle Ring', and 'The Starkin Crown'

Kate has a doctorate in fairytale studies, a Masters of Creative Writing, a Bachelor of Arts in Literature, and is an accredited master storyteller.

Reviews

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of a family, a family in which so many things have gone wrong that every individual is damaged and every life is being lived with pain and denial.

We follow the story through Sara. She is twenty years old and has such acute anxiety that she has not left the falling down farmhouse her family live in for five years. Her mother is dead and Sara's anxiety might be involved in that car accident that killed her, we are not sure. Her oldest brother fights to make the dairy farm survive, her two younger brothers sulk and skive off work whenever they can. Her half sister moodily inhabits the spaces of the family, her teenage fury and angst intensified by the feeling she does not belong.

But really, the main focus of the family, around which it all revolves and always has is Sara's father, the famous artist Augusto Sanchez whose rich, Spanish family history is bound up in his persona and has helped form his family. Augusto is larger than life, vibrant and passionate, but while in all ways an artist he is not a very good father to any of his children and his passion for life has twisted and warped them all.

This book fascinated and thoroughly absorbed me. I really loved it! The tortured life that Sara has led, leading to the crippling anxiety she lives with, well, it rally resonated with me. It is probably a time and place thing - you know how sometimes you pick up a book and ADORE it, while the same book in another mood may not hold your attention? I suspect Dancing on Knives is one of those. It got me at just the right time though. Sara's anxiety and uncertainty resonated with my own. Her insecurity seemed so sympathetic to me because I was going through my own life events at the time - nothing like her's but this book felt like a filter through which I could experience my own emotions, only through the storyline.

I loved the slow reveal of the novel, how we slowly find out that they may have been a murder, how we uncover, layer by layer the things about Augusto that make him a terrible father and not so great human being. I loved the way the author wrote his duality; a magnificent artist, able to create amazing paintings, but totally inept as a husband or father.

Since reading about art is one of my favourite things, I really, really enjoyed the way in which the Sydney art scene and art history were represented. This is not a huge part of the story, but for me it gave it a lot of depth. It seemed to me that one thing the book was saying was that Augusto should never have been a husband and father. He was not really interested in that aspect of his life, his massive ego and incredible focus should have stayed on his passion, painting. The unraveling of the multiple cruelties he visited on his family through indifference and intent, was the real fascination of the book. Learning how Sara became who she was, and watching her slowly start to live beyond her limitations. The steady pace in which we find out how the accident happened to Augusto, and the life choices that led him to where he was, this made for fascinating reading - but often creepy and occasionally downright nasty.

I found this a very rich book. Perhaps because it has been re-written and re-published a number of times, I thought it perfectly captured the youth and damage of the children, but had enough complexity to captivate the imagination.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was immediately drawn into this story right from the first chapter where Sara Sanchez is sitting in her kitchen on Good Friday worrying about where her father could be so late on such a wet and stormy night. Twenty two year old Sara has been frightened all her life, a sensitive girl who was bullied and marginalised as a child, she left school prematurely after a particularly nasty incident when she could take no more and has refused to leave the house since. She suffers from nightmares and panic attacks and often feels like the little mermaid from the story her beloved Spanish grandmother, Consuela, would tell her, dancing on knives and unable to speak. She now keeps house for the family and survives by devouring endless trashy romances and reading the tarot cards left to her by her beloved grandmother.

Kate Forsyth paints a picture of Sara's father, Augustus Sanchez as a passionate, brilliant artist who loves to live life to the full, but is a womanising, egotistical man who care only for himself and gives little heed to the needs or feelings of his family. As his family grows, he spend less time at home and more in his studio leaving his family to fend for themselves. When Sara's mother is expecting twin boys Augustus' mother Consuela arrives to help out and fills Sara's head with old stories and myths. When she dies she leaves Sara her recipe book and precious tarot cards. After a move back to her old homestead on the coast Sara's mother is also tragically killed and within months Augustus has married his mistress and moved her and their daughter Teresa into the house with Sara, the twins and her older brother Joe, who is trying to run the farm.

Augustus is finally found on that stormy Good Friday, hanging on a branch over a cliff. While he feebly clings to life, Sara and her siblings must come to terms with the events that have led up to this tragedy and try to mold themselves into a more functional family. There are many twists and turns as the suspense slowly builds and the mystery of Augustus' fall unfold.

The book tells an unusual story of a dysfunctional family and is beautifully written. The power of the sea and the story of the little mermaid are strong themes that weave through the story and eventually allow Sara to overcome her fear and break out of the prison that she has built around herself. Food is another strong theme throughout the book, with the smell and taste of the hot, spicy Spanish dishes that Augustus loves almost wafting out of the pages. I really enjoyed this dark, powerful story with a satisfying ending.Highly recommended.

With thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book to review.

[Sally906 · Rating 4 out of 5]

DANCING ON KNIVES was conceived over thirty years ago when a sixteen-year-old Kate Forsyth wrote it in an exercise book – she called it Monk’s Gate. Ten years later she used the same the same novel, rewrote it and renamed it as Sea Changes, for her English Master’s thesis and it went on to be published under her maiden name as Full Fathom Five. Last year she mentioned the book to her publicist and before her coffee had even cooled down Random House had taken up the rights and with a few editing changes has finally been released as DANCING ON KNIVES.

If you are expecting a full on fantasy and fairy tale theme, then you are going to be disappointed. What you are going to get is a mystery, a very good mystery, with twists and turns as you follow a very dysfunctional family trying to stand on their own two feet after their father dies. Sara is the central character; emotionally fragile and traumatised she has not left the house for five years, ever since a particularly nasty bullying experience at school. When she tries to leave the house, or strangers visit, she has severe anxiety attacks. Her mother died in a car crash, her step mother walked out on them after the bullying incident so Sara now keeps house for her three brothers, half-sister and her father, Augusto – an artist and drunken brute who terrorises and neglects his children. The story opens with a huge storm and realising Augusto has not returned home from a painting trip to a nearby cliff lookout. He is eventually found halfway down the cliff just clinging to life and dies of his injuries shortly after. Did he fall or was he pushed? If he were pushed, then which of the multitude of characters in the book, who all had reasons to want to kill him, would have done it?

Sara reads tarot cards, becomes immersed in romance novels and dreams of the ocean – the only place where she truly felt free. Now she wants to be free of her mental incarceration and live a normal life – and there are people to help her immerge – including a budding love interest that stays in the background as is not the main focus. The story of the family switches from the present day to the past as the story is filled in about how Augusto Sanchez rose to the top in the art world, his affairs, his drinking and had he had now plummeted into virtual obscurity. He is not a likable character at all, but so loud and passionate. He has a gypsy background and it was his mother who left Sara the tarot cards and a fixation on the fairy story ‘The Little Mermaid’ which was told to her by her grandmother.

DANCING ON KNIVES is not an edge of the seat thriller; the story slowly builds up with a good three-quarters of the book being the back story leading up to the day of the accident. As the story progresses, more and more likely suspects come to the front, some of them not as fleshed out as well as the main characters and seemed to be making courtesy appearances. However when all is revealed at the end it makes absolute sense. I really enjoyed the story – I like my mysteries to be subtle. There was lots of passion, lots of angst, suspense and great family dynamics amongst the siblings. I certainly enjoyed this departure from Kate Forsyth’s usual fantasy.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiet, shy and tormented - Sara Sanchez had finally left school after one more incidence of bullying that was just too much – all her life she had been teased, bullied and made fun of, and when the last straw came, she knew she wouldn’t return – ever. So now she had been at home with her father and brothers, Pablo (but always known as Joe) and twins, Dylan and Dominic, never leaving, for the past five years. The anxiety and panic attacks had become worse over those years until she felt she could take no more.

When their mother Bridget had died in a fiery car crash, her twin brothers had been young; then her father, famous artist Augusto Sanchez, had brought home a new wife, along with a daughter, Teresa who was six years old and his and their humiliation was complete. Augusto’s mother, Consuelo, had lived with them before she was knocked down by a car and killed – Sara was devastated, as her grandmother was the only one who understood her. Sara would secretly take out her grandmother’s tarot cards when she was distressed; sometimes they helped, but often they didn’t.

On Good Friday, when families were relaxing and celebrating the holiday weekend, Sara and her family were not. Because this weekend would be one that would change their lives forever – the deep secrets of the Sanchez family would gradually and painfully be revealed. But at what cost? Sara could sense that the shadow of foreboding which was threatening to engulf her was moving closer to them all….

This is my first book by Aussie author Kate Forsyth and I found Dancing on Knives quite disjointed with a tendency to drag on occasion. I also found myself skimming in some areas of the story. Augusto was not a likeable character with his complete cavalier attitude toward women. That said, the plot idea was interesting, the insight into a family that was damaged and continued to be so, with seemingly no idea how to better their lives quite intriguing. Recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.

[Josephine Pennicott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read Dancing On Knives in its earlier incarnation as Full Fathom Five, published by Harper Collins Australia under Kate’s maiden name Kate Humphrey in 2003. I loved it and so was curious to read the revamped Dancing on Knives, published 11 years later by Random House.



Sara, the lead character, suffers from panic attacks and hasn’t left her family home in five years. From the opening paragraph we learn Sara is afraid of many things. She reads the Tarot and has psychic gifts inherited from her Spanish Grandmother Consuelo – who bequeathed Sara her cards with the message that the Tarot will help her to see more clearly. Sara’s father, the tempestuous and self-centered Augusto Sanchez, a well-known artist, is discovered hanging upside down from a cliff in suspicious circumstances. On the night his body (half-alive, half-dead) is discovered, Sara draws three Tarot cards: the Emperor, the Tower and the Hanged Man. A clear signifier of Change, conflict and catastrophe. This is the set-up for a contemporary mystery set on the South Coast of New South Wales.



I loved the evocative descriptions of Sara’s readings:



Gently she opened the box. A faint, evocative smell of cinnamon, saffron and bay leaves rose from within, a smell that conjured powerfully the ghost of Consuelo Sanchez. Sara inhaled, holding the sweet, dusty spiciness deep in her lungs as if it was incense, her fingers resting on the silk-wrapped cards within. After a long moment she let her breath escape in a sigh, took the pack of cards out and unwrapped it from its shroud of silk. She turned the first card over.



Dancing On Knives is rich in poetic imagery. I enjoyed passages describing Sydney, and the Manly Aquarium, the giant sharks and stingrays which added a delicious otherworldly texture. And this passage below where studying one of her father’s paintings, Sara mourns her mother’s death:



Memories crowded in on her. Flashes of her mother’s voice, a strand of red hair, smothering velvet, smoke against a blue sky. It seemed to Sara that memories sank to the depths of the sea and hardened there to strange shapes. What was once a coin became a worthless disc of rusted green. What was once an anchor became a corroded crucifix. Nothing stayed the same.



Kate has previously written a book of poetry and one reason I enjoyed Dancing On Knives was the poetic feel to the story. It does have a sense of gripping tides and dark shadows in the writing. I also delighted in magical elements such as the description of Consuelo’s recipe book, which brims with remedies, love spells, shampoo, beauty aids and herbal lore. Consuelo still visits Sara after her death as a ghost, with tips such as advising her to make Thyme tea with honey for courage, or wear a sprig of Thyme in her hair. I loved the character of Consuelo and the rich relationship between her and Sara. I could envisage a whole book on Consuelo’s back story alone.



Augusto, with the face of a Spanish aristocrat, thin arrogant nose and cruel, sensuous mouth is an unlikeable character with his selfish treatment of his family. But you feel more sympathetic towards him when he has to mix with his conservative country in-laws, the Hallorans. Augusto loves to discuss God, Art and Death whereas the Halloans’s interests lie more in football and fishing. Augusto is intolerant of anybody who bores him and the Hallorans bore him intensely. Bridget, Sara’s mother, forces Augusto to move from Sydney to Narooma on the South Coast, where his in-laws live, to take up residence in the farmhouse left to Bridget by her father. The move proves disastrous. Augusto is a man who likes to not only paint women, but also to have sex with them first, believing the only way to know a woman is to bed her. When Augusto’s in a good mood he is passionate and King of Hearts, but he can swiftly transform when painting into the Demon-God. He mocks Sara’s attempts at art. His sons (the elder, Joe, and twins Dylan and Dominic) and Sara’s half-sister Teresa fear and despise him.



Sara’s panic attacks are also described when she is bullied at school. Throughout the novel we come to understand the source of Sara’s original trauma. A character deftly drawn, Sara craves order and predictability. She’s an avid bookworm – mainly romance novels that Augusto sneers at. She can read up to six in a day, ‘lighting one on the butt of the last until she feels sick and nauseated.’ She reminded me of other children with creative bohemian parents such as Arkie Whiteley. Her romantic reading serves as a kind of mind-opiate but then she discovers the world of literature via a found copy of DH Lawrence’s Women In Love. This book is a revelation to Sara of the power of words and storytelling to resonate in the human soul:



At once she had felt an oddness in the writing. It was quite unlike anything she had ever read before. It was not just that the two sisters in the book did not talk like anyone Sara knew, nor look like anyone with their white dresses and their brightly-hued stockings, grass-green, rose-red, cornflower-blue. It was not just that the words on the page waltzed round and round, pirouetting on points, turning and returning ever again to the same grace notes, building to a mordent melody that thrummed chords in Sara’s own shadow-bound soul, strumming music from keys that had long lain silent and still, coated in dust.

In their hearts they were frightened.



Enamoured of Women In Love, Sara comes to realise that she is not alone in her terror of the world – all the characters in Lawrence’s world are afraid. She wonders if Lawrence knew the pain she experiences of ‘the horror of other people, the world being too bright and sharp, as if every step brings pain. Like the character of the little mermaid who had her tongue cut out and had to dance on knives.’



By the book’s climax we come to discover the truth behind Augusto’s fall over the cliff.



The Tarot card drawn at the novel’s end is The World. Dancing On Knives is a sad book in many ways, but also a hauntingly sensitive story of dysfunctional families, creativity, the shadow side of art and the longing we endure for self-actualisation and our soul’s true yearning. It is a book that will resonate with all who have experienced the pain of feeling frozen, and not being able to speak your own truth and feeling the outsider in a world that is too sharp and bright. A multi-layered, lyrical, gripping literary mystery from Kate Forsyth. I highly recommend it.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love Kate Forsyth's writing. It's beautiful here, and the book reads like a modern gothic fairy tale with an intense atmosphere and flawed, complicated characters. Definitely worth a read.

[MaryG2E · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5★s
This is my first book written by Australian author Kate Forsyth. I’d seen glowing reviews and excellent comments about her work on Goodreads so I approached this novel with enthusiasm. Sadly, my expectations were not met. Try as I might, I could not warm to the main character Sara, and I thought the main narrative thread was under-developed.

I appreciated that Sara had a serious psychological condition, and that her life on the farm was relentlessly grim. Apart from her cousin and her late grandmother Consuelo, there was not a single positive character in the book. I was pleased that her situation improved towards the end of the book but by that stage I’d lost interest in the story. I will credit the book with prompting me to reflect on my own personality and behaviours, the way I interact with the world. I realise that I am very different from Sara.

[Sheree · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slightly different feel to other novels I've read by Kate Forsyth but it's an interesting journey to re-publication for the story first conceived 30 years ago by a then 16 year old Kate. Dancing on Knives is kind of languid and meandering and yet strangely compelling. And a testament to Kate's skill as a writer that I was fascinated whilst in the midst of so many unlikable characters.

Dancing on Knives is a novel of passion and family dynamics ... the severely dysfunctional Sanchez family. Twenty year old Sara Sanchez, suffocating under the weight of an egotistical, bullying father and loss and longing, so crippled by anxiety and panic attacks she hasn't left the family farm in 5 years.

I loved the strong sense of place (Narooma, a small town on the far south coast of NSW) and the importance of food, recipes passed down through generations ... descriptions literally making my mouth water, adding light and warmth to an otherwise dark tale. And how I adored Sara's grandmother Consuela Sanchez.

Sara inherited her grandmother's tarot cards, her prophetic 'knowing' and her recipe book. That was one of my favourite parts, I really enjoyed the descriptions and memories of that recipe book and I loved that Sara listened to her grandmother's wisdom, tapped into her inner strength and found a little peace and happiness.

Consuelo's recipes were all kept in a very thick old exercise book, bulging with odd bits of paper - old remedies, directions for making dandelion wine or rosemary shampoo, hand-scrawled notes on the secret properties of fruit and herbs - basil for enticing true love, rosemary for fertility, thyme for courage, apples for love and healing, figs to spell-bind love, sage for wisdom.

‘Thyme is best for courage,’ Consuelo told her. ‘Make a cup of thyme tea with honey, that’ll help make you brave. Or wear a sprig of it in your hair, so you can smell it."

That was the ghost of her grandmother, Consuelo Sanchez, whose roast goose cooked with pears could make grown men tremble. ‘A stick of cinnamon is the secret,’ Consuelo would tell Sara, standing at the end of the bed, a hunched little figure in black, a shadow among shadows.

I liked the magical feel, references to the macabre Little Mermaid fairytale, the Spanish culture, the segue from present to past and back.

Augusto Sanchez, I loathed ... passionate, egotistical artist, self absorbed, bullying human being, quite frankly I thought he got what he deserved ... oops, I mean I couldn't find it in myself to care about his 'accident'. For that matter, I didn't really care much for the rest of Sara's family either lol.

Not my favourite of Kate Forsyth's, that honour goes to the The Wild Girl but still wonderful storytelling.

[Karen Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever I was expecting when I picked up this novel, Dancing on Knives, it was not what Kate Forsyth delivered. Having said that, the story of Sara Sanchez, a young woman tormented by loss, longing, and a hugely dysfunctional family dominated by her egotistical, passionate and bullying artist father, Augusto Sanchez, is a study in how the mind and body can become a far worse prison than four walls ever can. This is a novel about betrayal, choices, trust, anger, grief and healing, one that lingers long after completion.

Suffering from panic attacks and an anxiety disorder (that's never named but heart-wrenchingly described), Sara tries to keep herself and what remains of her family together - her difficult father, surly older brother, the twins, and her resentful step-sister. Unable to leave the property that defines her life past and present, when her father disappears one stormy night, Sara is forced to confront not only her crippling fears, but the family history and secrets that have formed her, the present that defines her and the future that awaits her if she chooses.

The tale of Sara and the Sanchez family slowly unfolds, often told through vignettes of Sara's childhood and recollections of the Sanchez family before she was born and the Spanish traditions her grandmother and father tried to keep alive, before being interrupted by events in the present as the search for her father and the wreckage his presence has left are revealed. Food, stories and rituals play a big role in this narrative, becoming anchoring points and it's through these that Sara often escapes her bleak reality - these and the Tarot cards she sometimes reads as way of containing and preparing for what might happen next.

The mystery of Augusto and his fate, while it sets the action, mostly plays second fiddle to the mystery of Sara's state of mind and her gradual, painful healing.

This is not a happy tale, but it is haunting and like all Forsyth's works, beautifully written. For those anticipating another Bitter Greens, this book isn't it and the metaphor of the little mermaid is used powerfully but in ways that "speak" (excuse the pun) to the underlying meanings of silence - it's constraints, power and its punishing consequences. After finishing this, I was sad for days, angry at the forces within and without that can shape who we become and how our choices can be framed and limited by those others make, and though it left me frustrated and strangely dissatisfied, the beauty and truth of this tale is undeniable.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to be honest, I was expecting this to be Bitter Greens but with mermaids. Sadly, not so. I spent the first 100 pages (out of 270) thinking 'gee, this is taking a really long time to set up, where's the girl turning into a mermaid already?' Until then I realised, and I admit, with a broken heart, that this wasn't going to turn out that way. It was more a story about the family, Sara's father's potential murder, and the metaphorical connection of Sara and how she relates to La Sirenita. Once I realised that I should stop expecting a fairy tale, I did get into the 'was Dad pushed or was it an accident' thread but unfortunately I had it all plotted out before the end. I didn't feel it was a particularly deep book, nor did it make me think and while it hurts me to say it, it lacked the pure magic of Kate's other writings. I love both Bitter Greens and Wild Girl with such intensity that I dropped everything to read Dancing On Knives but even Sara herself didn't feel like a fully fleshed out character, and her end reprieve happened all so quickly that it didn't feel realistic. While I don't feel that this detracted greatly from the overall plot, I feel that it's a noteworthy point. It was an enjoyable enough read, and I don't regret picking it up it just wasn't what I was expecting.

[A Reader's Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

At twenty, Sara is tormented by terror so profound she hasn't left her home in five years. Like the mermaid in the fairytale her Spanish grandmother once told her, Sara imagines she is dancing on knives. She feels suffocated by her family, especially her father - the famous artist Augusto Sanchez - whose volcanic passions dominate their lives. Then one stormy night, her father does not come home. His body is found dangling from a cliff face. Astonishingly, he is still alive, but the mystery of his fall can only be solved by the revelation of long-held family secrets.

*3.5 stars*

This is a toughie. Lots of positives in this novel. As usual, Kate Forsyth knows how to transfix her readers with elegant prose and wonderful characters. The development of the characters was on-point. I was engaged completely with the storyline of Sara. And the conclusion, while not necessarily all smiles and roses, was particularly perfect.

What lost me a little bit was the flashbacks to Sara's family and culture. At times, it felt disjointed and really took me away from the story completely. And that is a little disappointing as those moments really did work for the story but the transitions felt at odds with what was developing in the overall story.

However, I have no problem recommending this book - it is Kate Forsyth, after all!


Paul
ARH

[Lauredhel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Augusto always peppered his speech with Spanish when he cooked, although he had not set foot on Spanish soil since he was born. ‘The secret with zarzuela is the sweetness. Cinnamon, saffron, sweet paprika, bay leaves. Sweet and salty the zarzuela, like the sea, like pasión.’"

I'm a huge sucker for books where food plays an important part! I'm also a big fan of books with a powerful sense of place. This book has both, along with family dysfunction, a murder mystery, and fairytale echoes.

Sara is traumatised and fragile, with severe anxiety attacks and agoraphobia. A self-described shut-in, she is haunted by images of her mother dying in car crash, and scarred by her father's neglect. She keeps house on the family's oceanside farm at Narooma on the south coast of New South Wales. Sara is interminably cleaning up after her three brothers and her teenage half-sister. She reads her grandmother's tarot cards, buries herself in romance novels, and dreams of the ocean.

"The Sanchez family had always lived by the sea. Augusto boasted the blood of Andalusian pirates flowed in their veins. Sara’s earliest memories were of sea-sparkle, sea-slither. She liked to lie at the very edge of the water, translucent waves running cold, delicate fingers all over her body. She liked to float on her stomach, her face below the water, watching her shadow darken the world below, like a cyclone moving in. She liked to twist and writhe through the water, legs pressed together, pretending she was a mermaid like La Sirenita in the story her grandmother used to tell, who lived in the depths of the clear blue sea, deeper than a hundred church steeples all stacked one on top of another."

One night, her father Augusto is late home. A delayed search finds him barely alive hanging off a cliff. Did he fall, or was he pushed?

Over the next few days, the mystery unfolds - with the family somehow treating it as a murder rather than an attempted murder, adding to the atmosphere of oncoming doom. We slowly wend through this present-day riddle while Sara's family's past is unraveled in the gaps.

Augusto, Sara's father, is a painter and a brute. He is a drunk, misogynist, abusive, neglectful cheater. He is contemptuous of Sara's art, because he feels you need to "live" before you can be an artist - drink, fuck, and above all go out of the house. Sara's eldest brother is trying to keep the farm going in an area that is moving toward tourism rather than farming, but her twin brothers and half-sister are angry and rebellious. Their neighbouring maternal uncle holds the mortgage over the farm, and he hates and resents Augusto for inheriting it. So plenty of people have a motivation for trying to kill Augusto...

I love the way that Dancing on Knives is about how the most 'fragile' person can be the only one holding things together. The book is thoroughly food-infused (and definitely needs a recipe glossary!). Others have critiqued it for its gently moseying pace. Sure, it's not a driving thriller, but you don't read a Forsyth for the page-turniness. It is less a speedboat ride and more a paddle-steamer meander through a sublime, dark forest. With Spanish food.

"That was the ghost of her grandmother, Consuelo Sanchez, whose roast goose cooked with pears could make grown men tremble. ‘A stick of cinnamon is the secret,’ Consuelo would tell Sara, standing at the end of the bed, a hunched little figure in black, a shadow among shadows.

The ghost of Consuelo Sanchez was always full of advice for her soft little grand-daughter. ‘Thyme is best for courage,’ Consuelo told her. ‘Make a cup of thyme tea with honey, that’ll help make you brave. Or wear a sprig of it in your hair, so you can smell it.’
Or she would say, ‘Never fear, querida, the pain will pass in time. Time heals all wounds.'"

Content notes for domestic violence, sexual assault, murder (obv), ableism, vivid descriptions of anxiety & panic attacks.

[Sam Still Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last year I went to an author talk by Kate Forsyth even though I hadn’t read any of her books. She was so lovely to talk to and so engaging, I immediately devoured Bitter Greens. I was so excited to see she had a book out this year, which is her first novel (published originally under her maiden name) with some reworking. Kate mentioned that she started this book at 16 in an exercise book, rewrote it for her Masters and published it ten years after that. I am awed and astounded at her talent at such a young age! This novel is dark, complex and incredibly well researched. It demonstrates an innate grasp of human nature and the demons and angels that drive us.

The novel takes place primarily over the Easter long weekend. The protagonist is Sara; a young lady who hasn’t left the family farm for five years after an event left her too scared and embarrassed to leave. The farm is situated on the New South Wales coastline and the family enjoy their own beach and a house with a tower to live in. It should be idyllic, but the Sanchez family is haunted by demons. After the death of her mother, Sara and her brothers and half-sister are splintered as their artist father becomes even more erratic. When he goes missing, nobody seems too bothered initially, but Sara knows there’s something more happening. Augusto is found on a cliff’s ledge, badly hurt. How did he get there? Will all the secrets of the Sanchez family become unravelled, and will Sara find salvation in the fallout?

Dancing on Knives is has strong Gothic elements in its telling – the weather is wild (it helped that my weather outside while I was reading this was similar) and there are powerful passions, deceptions and secrets that rise to the surface just when you think you’ve got the Sanchez family figured out. There are also lavish descriptions of Spanish food, which provided mouth-watering relief to the suspense elements. The suspense is not just about how Augusto was injured, but why Sara has chosen to hide herself away on the farm and the loss of her identity as she becomes nothing but housekeeper for the family. As the story progresses, we see Sara getting stronger and regaining her confidence and the reason why she refuses to leave the farm. (The flashback where Augusto tells Sara what her thinks of her art is particularly painful and cruel – I wanted to give her a big hug. How can a father be so vile?)

The narrative of this novel moves back and forth between the past, but I could always tell where we were in the story. The past events retold, from Sara’s grandmother’s stories and cooking to Augusto’s affairs help to enrich the story, in particular the way the Sanchez family is seen as broken and damaged. The ending is shocking but there is some happiness in store for Sara. I felt confident that she would rise above her fears to become her own woman.

Dancing on Knives is quite different to Bitter Greens, but both shine in the detail in which the story is told and the research is evident. If you’re after a dark, suspenseful book with twisted family dynamics, I’d certainly recommend Dancing on Knives. It shows what a dynamic author Kate Forsyth is. I’m looking forward to reading The Wild Girl soon.

Thank you to Random House Australia for the eARC.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dancing on Knives is a wonderfully passionate story that embraces a wide range of emotions in a beautifully lyrical writing style. In many ways the tempo of the narrative reminded me of an artist, a Van Gough if you will .... with the highs so high and the lows so low. There are a lot of emotional lows in this story and I felt my heart ache for young Sarah and her cripplingly dysfunctional family. As an Australian I enjoyed the descriptions of the country in such poetic detail, and I also enjoyed the colloquial references. Another cord that was struck for me, as an immigrant to this country as well, was Joe's struggle to fit in and be a "normal Aussie" boy who had Vegemite sandwiches in his lunch box. There was one area of the story that I wasn't entirely sold on though and while I don't want to reveal any spoilers I wonder if the recovery from certain conditions might take a bit longer than was described here but then again I don't claim to be an expert so I don't let it trouble me much. So overall, for me, this was a very enjoyable read with lots of emotion.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dancing on Knives by Kate Forsyth.
I so enjoyed Dancing on Knives written by Kate Forsyth.
I felt like I was on a seaside holiday most of the time caught up in Sara's real life story mystery and thriller.
I loved hearing all about the sea, the tides that turn with references to the tale of The Little Mermaid.
Set in Spain, then onto Sydney and the south coast, hearing all about recipes made with 'passion' like zarzuela, scents of cinnamon, artwork and canvases, chess and tarot cards.
This however, is a story about being brave.
'Have courage & be brave'.
I'm still 'spellbound' by Kate's imagination and exquisite writing of this book which will stay in my mind for decades to come.
I highly recommend Dancing on Knives by Kate Forsyth.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a 3.5 out of 5 ... once again the quality of writing is superb. This was Kate Forsyth's first novel I believe, and after a couple of reworks was released as Dancing on Knives. The story is bleak, don't expect a happy go lucky tale, if there's one thing I admired about the book it was the ability to drag the reader into the depths of despair. I was depressed reading it! The only reason it scored a middle of the range mark, is simply because I couldn't engage with the characters, I didn't feel for them and at times was quite frustrated with the whole Sanchez family! But you can't take away from Kate's writing and storytelling skills...she's one of the best.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not one of Kate Forsyth’s signature fairytales/fantasies, but a book conceived over 30 years ago when Kate was only 16 years old, and has now had a revival. This time Kate has given us more of a mystery, with a complicated family and Sara (the main character) fragile & traumatised after years of bullying and from the first page when Sara is sitting in a storm worried why her father is not at home we are bounced back and forth from current day, to past events. I did like this book Dancing on Knives, as I’m sure I would like anything by one of all time favourite authors….it’s not The Wild Girl but still a good read.

[Amy Bruno]

Want now!

[Cate Whittle · Rating 4 out of 5]

great story... dark

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to discover that this novel was first written when the author was fifteen and has had several reincarnations since. An well-written if somewhat bleak story about a dysfunctional family focusing on the life of the daughter, Sara, who suffers from agoraphobia. After the death of her mother she leaves school and cares for her siblings. She is a victim of her artist father's violent rages and passions and her brothers' selfishness. At the core of the somewhat meandering plot is a mystery about her father's fatal accident. Along the way we learn about Sara's relationship with her Spanish grandmother which profoundly influenced her.

[Brydie Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read the background to this story and its development over many years, I was even more impressed by Kate Forsyth's writing talent; mature, even from a very young age, when this book idea was first conceived. It's not written in the same genre as many of Forsyth's popular historical novels but it is engaging, beautifully written and page-turning nonetheless. Love the rural Australian setting and the story of the heroine's emergence from her cocoon...

[Pip Tlaskal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate came to our school for book week and was a complete delight and insight for all of the girls. I had to pick up one of her books and this one was written when she was just 16. It was darker than what I imagined but what dark lyrical force in her writing, it just compels you to read. You can see here how this was one of her first steps into the vein of the fairytale that she has mined so well giving kids that dark undercurrent that adults so often forget about.

[Corrinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow! A very different Kate story. I loved that it was Australian and contemporary. The Spanish heritage was an interesting twist. There was art and drama, love and betrayal, and throughout there was family keeping it all together. Or was it? Maybe 'family', the ties that bind, was what was holding Sara back. It was only when 'family' was broken that there was freedom for Sara to be herself.
As always Kate is deeper than just the story she is telling.

[Nancy Valentino]

I enjoyed this book - it was a bit more “literary” than some of what I’ve been reading lately. I like that the “dancing on knives” thing becomes a metaphor for what Sara has to endure to uncover the truth and, ultimately, begin to move forwards in her life. There’s some romance in this book but it’s not very romantic; it’s got this uncomfortable, gritty realism to it. Overall not really a very nice feel-good story but a pretty good one nonetheless.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate Forsyth novel that is not historical, or fantasy, and not for younger readers. It was a different world and of some interest, although, it felt distant, removed to a certain degree.
The story was interesting, and the plot intriguing, I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, unsettled, and not that keen, but I still understand it.

[Nadja Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kate Forsyths "The Wild Girl" is in my top 10 books of all time, so I started this book with high expectations which unfortunately weren't met. The spanish back story was beautiful but Sara herself was such a wreck to the point it got a bit boring. All in all good story ... but exhausting and slow in some places

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a fairy tale retelling really, but still interesting.

[Kira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come

[Cassandra Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a really hard read, you guys. Really hard.

I went into it not knowing exactly what to expect. I was hoping it might be urban fantasy, given the Little Mermaid reference in the title. Kate Forsyth has written a lot of fantasy and magic realism, and Dancing on Knives could be loosely described as the latter, but it really is closer to straight adult contemporary.

I would've picked it up anyway, because I love Kate Forsyth, but I thought you should know, just in case that's not your thing.

The story, told from Sara's point of view, covers both a single Easter weekend and her entire lifetime, alternating between the two. I want to say it jumped around between times, but that might make you think it felt disjointed. It didn't. I never had a problem following with the story, so masterfully did Kate handle the transitions. And her prose is beautiful. Heart-wrenchingly beautiful. (Also, it often made me hungry. Her descriptions of food are to die for.)

So why do I say it was a hard read? Because Sara's life is awful. This is a girl who has hit rock-bottom, crushed by the huge, passionate and abusive personality of her father, a famous Australian-Italian painter named Augusto Sanchez. I suspect if Augusto hadn't fallen over that cliff in the first chapter (no spoiler: it's in the blurb), I might not have been able to finish this, as much as I adored Kate's writing. Knowing how he ended up gave me the strength to read about how he lived until that point.

Augusto is truly awful -- verbally abusive, degrading those he should uplift, womanising, drinking, wasting money while his kids struggle to make ends meet. But at the same time, during some of Sara's flashbacks, you caught glimpses of why she stuck around, hoping for the good times to come back -- in the same way an abused spouse craves the happy moments when they aren't being thrown against a wall. She blames herself for his behaviour, because she should have known better than to do things that made him angry.

I hated him. A lot. I just wish I'd pushed him off the cliff.

Happily, in the course of figuring out what happened to her father that day, Sara also starts to find the strength to stand up for herself, and to escape her prison for good. The ending is uplifting. But I can still only give the book four stars, because reading it made me melancholy. I was sad about other things in my life, and reading Dancing on Knives to distract myself was maybe the dumbest thing I could have done at the time.

If I'd read this another time, maybe it would've been a five-star read. I don't know. But if you like contemporary novels that look at hard issues with beautiful writing, this may be the one for you.

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars
A dysfunctional family comes into further crisis when their patriarch, famous artist Augusto Sanchez goes missing. When Augusto is eventually discovered he is found dangling by a cliff face, his life hangs in the balance as he teeters between life and death. This tragic event shakes the Sanchez family to the core, washing up old family secrets, as the mystery unfolds around Augusto’s fall. It also becomes a defining moment for eldest child Sara, who is forced to confront her anxiety head on. Sara has not left her home for years but the accident becomes a chance free her from the restrictions of her self imposed exile.
There were a couple of reasons why I wanted to read Dancing on Knives, which is my first go at reading a Kate Forsyth novel. The first being that I found it incredible interesting and a profound achievement that this book was written by the author at just 16 years of age. It has since been revised several times, which included a title change. The second reason I wished to read this book was the references to the Little Mermaid, which was a book I cherished as a young girl growing up, it definitely ignited my love of reading. Dancing on Knives playfully uses the beautiful imagery of The Little Mermaid, applying it to main character Sara. Sara describes her inability to leave the safety of her home, like dancing on knives, which is the feeling incurred by the little mermaid when she is given the ability to walk. This helps the reader gain an in depth understanding of the debilitating illness Sara suffers from her anxiety. Interspersed in the narrative are further subtle references to the fairytale in the descriptions of the sea, which links to the Australian coastal setting of the book. The narrative itself is by no means a page turner and at many points of the book it was a far from pleasant read. This is mostly due in part to Augusto Sanchez, a rather vile character, who I was unable to sympathise with. However, the well defined characters, mostly the beautiful soul Sara, make up for the tough parts. This is matched by beautiful prose from Forsyth throughout the novel. I also appreciated the tender love story and references to Spanish food which is weaved intricately throughout the book. When I reached the end of this multi layered book, I found the conclusion to be satisfying, offering closure to the reader and characters. Dancing on Knives is a book to tread slowly with but to get to the end the reader will be rewarded with a sublime coming of age story.