Life Drawing

by Emily Lighezzolo

Hypothetically, would you want to live forever but invisible, or a short life seen? Hypothetically, would you give up wine forever or sex for ten years? Hypothetically, would you show a friend someone else' s nude? Maisie and Charlie meet at a life drawing session as she' s the model, he' s an artist. Their immediate connection carries them across two decades as they navigate the slippery dynamics of friendship, estrangement and family. Maisie' s story is every woman' s, and Emily Lighezzolo' s bold debut interrogates the collision of art and gaze, desire and consent, muse and meaning. This is a love story. At its a woman' s body – seen, touched, loved, hated, commodified and reclaimed. Life Drawing is an award-winning and unflinching novel for our times.

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Literary Fiction, Novels, 21st Century

359 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 3, 2026

Reviews

[Bert]

Sally Rooney better watch her back because Emily is coming for her gig.

A complex, prickly and extremely readable debut from an author who clearly knew exactly the story and vibe she wanted to create. Fans of Sally Rooney will feel right at home here, though this somehow feels even more real, even BETTER!

Divided into three parts, each section revisits these characters at different points in their lives. I kept being reminded of the Before Sunrise trilogy while reading.

Great work, Emily!

[Rosie]

I really enjoyed this! This book was so amazing for a debut novel, and I can definitely see Emily Lighezzolo becoming very popular with the girlies in the future. I loved that it was set in Brisbane (even though I’m biased) and I liked the time jumps and the overall pacing of the story.
It was much bleaker than I expected (especially towards the middle and end), but it was also very real and raw. I thought the portrayal of how depression can manifest throughout the different stages of someone’s life was very well done.
There were parts where the characters were pissing me off, but that’s probably just a testament to how real they felt—they made stupid decisions just like the rest of us.
Even though this isn’t the kind of book I usually pick up, I still liked it a lot and would recommend it for anyone looking for a deep and introspective contemporary novel.

[Rabita]

Life Drawing focuses on the difficult and complicated relationship women have with their bodies. Disappointingly, Life Drawing’s answer to self-acceptance appears to be romantic love and validation from the male gaze. While I was initially drawn in by the main characters’ awkward and endearing fumble through college life and young love, my interest waned. The college section felt too long. My interest picked up at the tail end with the exploration of parenthood. Overall, I found the character development lacking and narrowly focused on the two main characters’ relationship with each other and scarce character development attributable to external events.

[Jaclyn]

Maisie has an incredibly complicated relationship with her body and it affects how she moves through the world, her relationships, her mental health, her desires. Her attempts to reclaim her body, her power, her agency are often heartbreaking. If we’re aiming for body neutrality, Life Drawing shows how far we are. This book transports you back to those university share house days and Brisbane comes to life here with the city a character in its own right. Lighezzolo writes with compassion and her prose is clear eyed. I will be pressing this book into the hands of young people, especially those starting uni and tafe but also their parents. It amazes me how much we have to figure out about ourselves in this life and how little time we have to do it.

[Natasha Lester]

A strikingly bold debut novel that turns an unflinching gaze towards love and women's bodies. Written with both compassion and evocative prose, Emily Lighezzolo's book tackles contemporary issues head-on through the eyes of her two expertly drawn main characters.
I received an advance copy from the publishers

[Bella Skene]

An incredible debut novel! As a Brisbane girl, I could feel the atmosphere through the screen and Maisie’s uni days are parallel to many. Emily wrote Maisie and Charlie’s story beautifully and truly encapsulated the trying relationship between a young woman and her body and sexuality and I loved the exploration of this as she grew older. Wonderfully written, cannot wait for book club now!

[Catriona Henry]

So beautifully written and loved the themes it delved in to !

[Greta Ryan]

I really enjoyed this one! Some of the story lines made me feel anxious and uncomfortable because I felt like it was a real story about real people that I knew, maybe because it was based in Brisbane and she described students nights at the RE perfectly? You really felt like you were in Charlie and Maisie’s heads throughout the book. Recommend to all the brissie girls

[Lowri Powell]

Read this for a book club. Haven’t read a book set where I live before which was found surprisingly jarring oops.
I liked how the focus moved between the two throughout the sections. I feel like this could’ve been so much longer though as some time jumps left meaty gaps in the timeline.
Some have said it’s a Sally Rooney vibe and I agree I but this time with speech marks!

[Marisa]

I have complicated feelings about this one. I kind of feel I need to ruminate on it a bit more. There were some interesting conversations about motherhood, body image, class etc. but I also felt some parts lacked depth and were under explored. But this is also a debut. I love books set in brisbane but I did find the characters quite annoying and hard to read about at times

[caitlin c]

heart the lover and normal people in one

[Tracey]

I loved this book with my whole heart. What a debut!

[Francesca Jones]

Not my usual book but I flew through it !!

[jassie lily]

Wow. Approach this book with caution, definitely a heavy one with some triggers towards the end. Honestly a beautiful, honest and gut wrenching debut, and definitely worth your time.

This might be a terrible review because I almost can’t even begin to process my thoughts and feelings. Emily Lighezzolo’s ‘Life Drawing’ is filled with characters you detest and love at the same time - at least I did. Maisie and Charlie feel like people I’ve met before (maybe it’s all the brissy characterisation). Lighezzolo’s prose in this novel is striking and raw, not sugarcoating the parts that are meant to leave you with a sour taste in your mouth. I don’t know if I could say I wholeheartedly enjoyed this book - several parts had me putting the book down to stare at the ceiling after reading them. But I know it was what I’d call a GOOD book because it made me giddy, angry, hurt, disgusted, relieved, and more within the span of 300-ish pages. And the part of Lighezzolo’s writing that struck me in the heart the most was its honesty. I picked up this book expecting a love story, and put it down after experiencing the vastness of emotional intensity that comes with being a woman and having a body. Maisie’s story truly exemplifies the distance that exists between women in modern society and achieving body neutrality, and draws into the light the way we so often view and use our own bodies through and as result of outside gazes.

Despite being marketed and described primarily as a love story between Maisie and Charlie, I would say Life Drawing is a raw telling of the vulnerability, discomfort, and injustice that exists in experiencing womanhood in modern society (amongst other hearty themes) and the way those in our lives with somewhat different experiences may navigate this discomfort with or against us. I believe this novel will resonate with so many people and is TRULY worth your time.

[Samantha Julia]

I haven't touched a book filed under romance in a hot minute, and I'm so happy I haven't because that just made Life Drawing all the more refreshing. This book scratched an itch I couldn't find! Yes to media that paints - nay, draws - women's struggles for what they are. SO many moments of frustration, cringe, and love in, what, ~300 pages? Having limited travels to BNE myself, reading this felt like catching the red-eye flight home and curing the blues with sinigang for breakfast... I miss this book already

[Angell]

Lots of conflicting feelings about this one. The first third, I loved. I found it authentic, insightful and very relatable as someone who spent entirely too much time in South East Queensland and entirely too much time at university in my younger years... it was a love story with art and I was really enjoying it... but then came the second third, and when time had lapsed and it was about the emotional affair and I just got the ick. The story then moved from an exploration of art into the nature of the infidelity before straight miserable body issues, and the last 20% was not a pleasant ride. It was surprisingly complex and if it wasn't a library book (I almost bought a copy to keep in the first third, but then was pleased I didn't as things continued) I would have had some meaningful passages, but by the final third I was ready to leave them behind and almost considered DNF-ing it. Fairy floss ending after all the work that the creator did to tear their world down, and it honestly felt like 4 different story ideas of 4 different people mashed into one text.

[Ginge_Reads]

3.5 Stars! Our inaugural 'Normally (Distributed) People' book club pick. The fist 2/3 of this were amazing - was super immersive for being a student at UQ and living in sharehouses etc. However unfortunately the back 1/3 lost me a little. It felt a little like the book was trying to target so many issues, but I am not sure if give the ones towards the end enough space or nuance. I wanted to stay in the early adulthood era forever.

[Millie Gall]

3.5 stars

[Angie]

Reason 7395 to not have kids

[Tegan Dalman]

I really loved this book!! Maybe because it was so familiar being set in Brisbane? The first half was a throwback to uni days. I liked the different POVs throughout. Would recommend!!

[Carli]

LOVED IT! Could barely put it down

[Rita Speziale]

Enjoyed this love story.
It shows how body image and self preservation are our society main cause of anxiety issues.
I especially enjoyed how it shows an artists view if a women’s body -lines , curves , volume . Instead of skinny , saggy , fat

[Farida]

I quite enjoyed the start of this but half way through (a little bit into the second section) I just started to really lose interest and the rest of the book just felt like a drag to get through and it all felt a bit draining. I just had no interest in the characters at all and was not invested at all in their relationship. Despite that though, it was still enjoyable enough to continue reading and finish to the end, it’s well written and the themes it explores are interesting and engaging, but it just falls a bit flat when there is little interest in the actual characters.

[Colette Godfrey]

I just found that I didn't particularly like or care about the main characters very much. I was interested in the idea that they couldn't quit each other, but it's a shame that some of the potentially interesting themes got quite lost in all of that.

[Peter Mathews]

A tedious soap opera with not a profound thought in sight.

[Cass Moriarty]

Emily Lighezzolo’s debut novel LIFE DRAWING (UQP 2026) explores the female body from a multitude of perspectives: the physical changes of puberty, childbirth, menopause and aging; how females consider their own bodies over time; the male gaze and how it affects women’s feelings of self-identity; whether bodies are on show or hidden, and whether this changes how people relate to the personality of the person; and how a woman’s body might be ‘seen, touched, loved, hated, commodified and reclaimed’ over a lifetime.

The author achieves this multifaceted viewpoint through the lens of a body as art, whether photographed, sketched, painted or simply adored through the eyes of another. LIFE DRAWING raises so many interesting questions about our relationship with our own bodies, the assumptions we make about others because of their bodies, and how those feelings shift over the years.

At its heart, this novel is a contemporary love story. Maisie works as a life-drawing model and first meets Charlie when he participates in one of her drawing classes. He’s an artist and sees her as just that – a body he is keen to sketch. But afterwards they coincidentally connect through a share house and soon share mutual friends and a lifelong game of Hypothetical that they share as a sort of love language. ‘Hypothetically, would you want to live forever but invisible, or a short life seen?’

Their words and promises, their dreams and ambitions, their fears and mistakes, their joys and longings reverberate throughout the years as they each poke at the tender places of the other, knowing each other so well (perhaps even sometimes too well) that they develop a mutual co-dependency or need or want or yearning that at times neither is equipped to deal with.

Over two decades, they navigate their complex feelings for one another throughout friendship, intimacy, estrangement and family.

Lighezzolo’s portrait of the female body is unflinching, courageous, curious, questioning, vivid and pulls no punches. She doesn’t skirt around issues of exploitation, consent, pornography, intimacy, aging or artistic impression but rather uses each of these themes to examine what lies (often deeply hidden) in the minds of women about their own bodies, and in other people about the lives and bodies of women both specifically and in general.

Both Maisie and Charlie are viscerally opened up so we can see inside their chests to their beating hearts, to see what really makes them tick. She confronts uncomfortable thoughts, unconventional opinions and controversial views about physicality, the corporeal body, sex, gender, intimacy, friendships, relationships and the darkest aspects of where our minds go when faced with trauma, whether that be an eating disorder, postnatal depression, sexual abuse, depression, anxiety or suicide.

But despite these weighty themes, Lighezzolo retains moments of grace, tenderness, warmth, kindness, forgiveness, loyalty and self-love that are glorious reclamations of the female self. A heart wrenching but ultimately redemptive story, beautifully captured.

[Nick Wasiliev]

This book was provided courtesy of UQP Books, with an accompanying interview with Emily Lighezzolo featured on the literary podcast Date With A Debut in May 2026. All views and opinions are of my own, the reviewer.

Mild spoilers below.

Body autonomy, power, gender, friendship, estrangement - and the woman’s body, especially - are at the core of this amazing debut from Emily Lighezzolo - and it might be one of my favourite books of the year.

Following two to-be lovers in Maisie and Charlie when they meet in a life drawing class, this novel catalogues the relationship between the two of them - how they meet in the days of university, experimentation and passion, then into domestic life and children.

It is a messy relationship with moments of serious moral questions… and I was completely wrapped up in it.

However, that is only one part of the story, with the other relationship being between Maisie and her body, with Lighezzolo interrogating how her body is perceived, admired, ridiculed, commodified and ultimately reclaimed. Her decision to cover it across three parts of the story - each named after the part of the female body affected by the events - is a genius creative decision.

This is at the core of this novel, and considering this is something most women struggle with across their life, it makes this story so loaded and charged, with what is not said as important as what is.

Having Charlie is an outsider to this discourse is also particularly valuable for the reader - how he loves Maisie and her body for what it is is a major part of their relationship, but that isn’t to say he is an angel when it comes to how he perceives her, with several decisions he makes very questionable.

Men and women should read this book for the understanding it provides about body neutrality and how women’s bodies are perceived, even if lots of questions are left hanging about how we as a society tackle such difficult topics.

Lighezzolo has a lot to say, and she covers so much ground in terms of the thematic concept of this book, it stunned me when I turned the last page that this was a debut.

Lighezzolo is a star to watch, and Life Drawing is a life changer. Dive into this incredible book and the rich world it has to offer. It challenges and questions, but it is ultimately a stunningly rewarding reading experience.

5/5

Booktopia: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/aNWM9Q
Date With A Debut Podcast episode: https://dwad.podpixels.com/ep/series-...

[Kerryn Griffin]

I’m left feeling so conflicted about this novel. I have typed an absolute essay and then deleted it because I can’t quite express my thoughts as eloquently as I’d like to.

Overall I think it’s because couldn’t I buy into their relationship. It remained immature and stuck in its university dynamic (which was not healthy).

For me there was a confusion between lust and love. Lust doesn’t build a sold, functional, supportive and healthy relationship.

I do not believe you can fuck and cum your way to an understanding relationship.

Plenty of people use sex as a salve for a relationship that doesn’t work or stay because of physical attraction, which is seemingly what Maisie and Charlie’s relationship came back to again and again (sex and attraction and their bodies understanding one another). A sexually charged relationship does not equate to a supportive one. You need to learn how to communicate with words.

You could argue that Maisie and Charlie’s relationship eventually evolved once Maisie went through post natal depression but even then… I’m not so sure.

They never spoke. Ever. About anything of substance in a meaningful way? It was all in these “hypothetical” which was cute when they were at uni but when you’re in your 30s with a child after navigating massive trauma… is that really how you are going to carry on communicating with each other? Never saying how you actually feel and just “communicating with your eyes”?

Maisie went away and then came back and they just continued as they did before… which just sent Charlie into an anxiety spiral, much like the start of their relationship when he couldn’t get on solid ground with her.

Having said that, I really enjoyed the theme around the body and the different ways it can be viewed, appreciated, abused by ourselves and others.

It was a good read overall and despite my frustrations with some characters and plot points I did want to pick it up and finish it.

[Kiwiflora]

This was very profound and quite unexpected. I took it to read based on a recommendation that it was sort of in the same vein as Normal People - young love and its struggles - but better. As neither of us thought Normal People was as good or amazing as everyone else seems to think it was/is, I took it reluctantly. But it has turned out to be a deeply moving, incisive and beautifully written novel. Narrated by Charlie, a slightly awkward young university student, quietly trying to find his feet. He loves to draw, not necessarily seeing himself as an artist, more as an outlet. He begins to attend a life drawing class where he is dazzled by the young woman who is the sitter. Maisie has a very complicated relationship with her body, her self-esteem, the public Maisie vs the private Maisie. It is very much an unrequited love on Charlie's part for some time, Maisie never allowing herself to see the what sort of young man is in her view. The years pass, life happens, and still Maisie and Charlie merge in and out of each other's lives, the good bits and the bad bits. It is set in current day, but it could be any young person's experience of first love, of young adults finding themselves sexually, learning to love themselves, dealing with the horrible objectification that has come with being a beautiful young woman. I am sure the themes apply equally well to young men, but this story has been written with a young woman in mind, and will be relate-able to many readers. You don't have to be young to read this, I am not, and perhaps that is better. As an older reader you have gone through stuff yourself, you also realise that every young body is beautiful, even if it's wearer doesn't think so. Yet. if you have young women in your life, this has terrific themes for discussion and sharing of views. As well as being a beautiful story.

[Silk & Sentences Danielle Robinson]

Maisie’s confidence in a life-drawing class sits rather awkwardly alongside her uncertainty about being loved, and I found that contradiction very believable. She can choose to expose her body and still feel vulnerable about what someone sees in her.

Life Drawing follows Maisie and Charlie from their university years in Brisbane through separation, reunion and parenthood. I enjoyed watching their relationship develop over time, although there were moments when I wanted to sit them both down for a conversation they probably wouldn’t thank me for.

The strongest passages for me concern Maisie’s changing relationship with her body, especially after childbirth. Lighezzolo gives proper attention to the distress of feeling unfamiliar to yourself while everyone else expects you to be getting on with motherhood. The consequences of images shared without consent are also handled with care.

I wanted a little more access to Maisie’s thoughts in the earlier sections. Charlie’s perspective takes up considerable room, and occasionally I felt I was watching her through his eyes when I wanted to understand her through her own. Her later experiences felt much more fully realised.

An intelligent and absorbing debut, with plenty to discuss about desire, bodily autonomy and the insecurities we carry into relationships. I finished wondering how readily Maisie could believe in Charlie’s affection when her own opinion of herself was so dependent on being desired.

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