Capture

by Amanda Lohrey

James Mather is a psychiatrist in his sixties. He is invited to take on a new group of patients. All he knows about them is that each one claims to have been abducted by aliens.

His wife, Deborah, is sceptical, but he gets going anyway. His patients tell mesmerising stories. There’s Anthony, for instance, who was camping one night by the Aral Sea; or Mary, the owner of a beauty salon, confronted by a ball of light moving towards her in her bedroom.

James’s research assistant Lucy Cheng sits in on each session. She’s an attractive young divorcee, who has made a study of anxiety, and who takes notes about each conversation.

Capture is a strange philosophical fable about what we can believe in a post-truth world. It will beguile and baffle its readers. Amanda Lohrey is an extraordinary writer. Her novel might be full of crazy stuff, but who could deny its sanity?

Amanda Lohrey lives in Tasmania and writes fiction and non-fiction. She has taught at the University of Tasmania, the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Queensland. Amanda is a regular contributor to the Monthly magazine and a former senior fellow of the Australia Council’s Literature Board. She received the 2012 Patrick White Award. The Labyrinth (2021), her eighth work of fiction, won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, a Prime Minister’s Literary Award, a Tasmanian Literary Award and the Voss Literary Prize.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Literary Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2026

About the author

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

Reviews

[Rowan MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd always heard good things about Amanda Lohrey’s work – it was time I finally experienced it for myself!

James Mather is a psychiatrist who embarks on a research project to interview those claiming to have been abducted by aliens. He will attempt to give clinical explanation to what are thought to be delusions. It’s something meant to be a welcome diversion, after years working with suicidal young men – yet it turns into something more.

“If you’re not careful, you’ll end up believing them.”

Capture has a strong beginning. I was mesmerised, caught up in the unsettling vibe, one that borders on whimsical yet serious. Dialogue between James and the “experiencers” was sharp and flowed well, making me feel like a fly on the wall to their sessions. Clinical aspects felt authentic which added to the intrigue, ensuring I kept turning the pages – always a sign of talented writing!

It was ironic that in a book touching on alien abductions and zero sense of time, I would become so engrossed that I’d lose track of time myself. James has a clearly defined voice, speaking in an old-fashioned style that reminded me of John Buchan characters, yet the story never seemed dated, quite the opposite.

He hires a research assistant, Lucy. I particularly enjoyed the Café Europa chapters – conversation between James and Lucy was always good, even though James was somewhat unlikable. Capture proved quite an intellectual workout at times – best evident in Lucy’s tangents on pronatalism and genetics. It’s a book that covers plenty of ground – the blurb admits it will baffle readers!

Among those interviewed is a woman who thinks her eggs were harvested and a pilot who says he was taken from his cockpit. There are fascinating cases, yet I kept wondering what Amanda was trying to say. It’s a thought-provoking story that causes you to pause and reflect, yet despite the unique concept, I found myself disengaging towards the end.

“We have wandered a long way from the subject of alien capture…”

This isn’t for those who demand tidy endings. I wondered if it was possible to resolve everything, then accepted maybe it wasn't and perhaps that was the point. Amanda places it on the reader to interpret the novel how they see fit. The book feels as much about failure than anything else, how one grapples with it and their sense of self. Knowing what the book is about is maybe half the mystery.

“People will see what they already understand.”

If you enjoy thought-provoking works with ambiguity, open to reader interpretation, then this might be for you. Capture is a compelling and original read that will linger in my mind for days to come.

This review can also be found on my blog, where I write about books and feature author interviews. You can read it here.

Many thanks to Text Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[John Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read at times, but it just felt unfinished. Jim is a psychiatrist in his 60s who is approached by an old mentor who convinces him to undertake a study of people whom have met with or been abducted by aliens. All his training screams no, but he does take on the project with the assistance of Lucy, who transcribes all his interviews.

There are some interesting and thought provoking experiences of varied people who have claimed to have experienced being abducted by aliens. But as the interviews progress, Jim loses his focus and wanders off in discussions with non abductees about life and philosophy and not related topics to the original premise. The first half was very engaging, the second half lost me. I loved Ms Lohrey's Labyrinth previously, but this just did not have legs and left me wanting more. 3 stars. Library ebook.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Amanda Lohrey's writing and the way she thinks about things, so I'll read anything new she publishes, but I admit to being a bit perplexed when I discovered this new book was about alien abduction (or 'capture'). It seemed really leftfield, until on Day 2 of my reading, when the biggest story in the news was the declassification and release of the UFO/UAP files from the US Dept of Defense. So timely!

As for the book - I enjoyed having my beliefs challenged and stretched. There are no answers as such, but it's a very thought-provoking treatment of quite a sensational topic.

The audiobook is narrated by Michael Lindner. At first I was worried that we weren't going to get along very well, but in fact his voice and delivery were both perfect for world-weary, respectful psychiatrist, James Mather.

[liv (≧▽≦) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light 4 stars

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting! It is very X-Files coded (which I love) and I can imagine the hypnotherapist who treats Scully and Mulder writing something like this. Essentially, this book follows a therapist who takes on a research paper looking at those who have experienced alien abductions. Each person he interviews is unique in their own story, so he struggles to find something linking them all together. He is constantly warned by his supervisor that being so open-minded will lead him to believe the patients (although I don't necessarily see an issue with this). I enjoyed the exploration of both the therapist and the patient. I also think this book was the perfect length; it didn't drag on, but it didn't feel rushed. Everything was wrapped up nicely at the end. No real complaints other than, I wish there was more time spent with the patients - they were the most interesting part for me.

[Daniella · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb tricked me bro it makes it sound cool when it's basically a bunch of people rattling off their abduction stories and then we learn about the scientist's life and then it ends with the dude just giving up on his study but somehow he's changed their lives just by listening? barf

I thought I was more ambivalent about this book but thinking about it now makes me kind of angry...? The tone was successful in that it was like boring science man talks to people and then detachedly analyses them and moves on but it didn't make it any less boring? Why is the assistant even mentioned in the blurb and why does it matter that she's hot and divorced?

Tbh I think I'm just mad because it's presenting itself as this groundbreaking work looking at truth and meaning and spirituality but it touches on everything in such a surface level way that it leaves no impression at all? Or maybe that's the point and it's like a deep comment on how people talk but nothing matters now and don't believe everything you read?? Everything is so heavy-handed too with people just sitting around and spewing out their philosophical monologues on how people use abduction stories to rationalise fears in their real life and deal with the decline of religion - which are interesting topics but I feel would be better explored in non-fiction. If this was what Socrates was like I get why they voted him off Love Island smh

It reminded me in style of things like Before the Coffee Gets Cold or The Midnight Library where it almost feels like a covert self-help book but it doesn't even really go there? The ending feels unearned and the protagonist doesn't go through enough of a journey for that to be interesting either. A lot of telling rather than showing, and side characters/plots that don't seem to serve much of a purpose. I just wanted an alien book and all I got was this t-shirt :(

[Madeleine Laing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to rate this because I really enjoyed reading it but have no idea what, if any, greater themes or ideas I was meant to be thinking about. Just... a few interesting tales of alien abduction? Ok!

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not how academic research with human subjects works at all but this book captures exactly how old, white, male academics act.

[Lauren Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished Capture in under five hours because I could not put it down. The premise hooked me immediately: a psychiatrist conducting a research project into people who believe that they’ve been abducted by aliens. The subject matter touches upon sci-fi, folklore, religion, memory and belief but the novel itself feels deeply human and grounded. It never tries to force answers or convince the reader of anything supernatural, it sits perfectly in that liminal space between psychology and the unexplained.

Amanda Lohrey writes inner dialogue so beautifully. The protagonist, Dr James Maher, felt intelligent, vulnerable, observant and incredibly real to me. What made this book stand out were the characters. Every single person featured in this book felt vivid and rememberable, even if we only spent a chapter with them or heard about them from a distance. There is a fascinating range of perspectives and I found myself excited every time a new character was introduced. I also appreciated how restrained the ending felt. Nothing dramatic or unrealistic for the sake of it, instead a thoughtful, subtle and emotionally satisfying close.

A five star read for me

[Text Publishing]

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

‘Lohrey is a beautiful writer.’
Australian

‘A taut yet contemplative story whose apparent simplicity belies its scope.’
Books+Publishing

‘A serious – and seriously wonderful – novel about alien abductees…Elusive, unsettled, defiant.’
Monthly

[Allan Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was excellent, an original story, well-written novel about a commissioned research into experiences of individuals who encountered extraterrestrial lifeforms. I enjoyed the science-y information collation, the holistic analyses of UFO testimony, some bright ideas, old and new. MC is a Psychiatrist, towards the end of his working life, and participants are interviewed in the clinical setting of his rooms, with an appointed postgraduate.

Throughout, I surmised how plausible the captive experience presents in detail, or through observation. As the author says “..a dream is a dream, and if a certain scenario lodges in the unconscious, it will do so for an underlying reason. A symptom of underlying and deeper fears peculiar to the individual..’ Most importantly, each participant must have declined hypnosis therapy.

Between sessions, the narrative maneuvers from abductees interviews, the bedroom abductees for example, and into the mundane as it follows MC, visits to friends and colleagues, a Shiatsu master, attending dinner parties, participating in family life. On each occasion, the story continually grows from another academic perspective. In the final chapter, I expected to be scooped up with MC and taken to their leader .. But it ends in a more mature way.
edited for spelling

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Amanda Lohrey sitting somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

James Mather is a psychiatrist exhausted by a study related to suicide. When a revered and esteemed colleague encourages him to look at people who have experienced alien abduction he is wary but succumbs to the promise of a simpler, less emotional study.

The novel considers plausible explanations for these “capture” events, as James trawls through religion, philosophy and other disciplines to understand it.

The premise is very interesting but the execution lacks heft or story arc. I need more story than this; a meandering consideration. Lohrey’s writing is lovely if dispassionate.

[will e · Rating 3 out of 5]

More aliens!!! I wanted more aliens!!! Really enjoyed the first half and gobbled it up but the second half wandered off to a place I didn’t really care to follow. Loved hearing about the abductions.. spoooooooky

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Failure.  It comes to us all, at some time or another, in our personal or professional lives, and though some times are harder than others,  we have to learn to deal with it.  That's what adulthood is.

But what if your entire professional life seemed a failure?  I don't mean reputational damage or embarrassment about the occasional mistakes that we all make, I mean a private cringe or a flood of shame when looking back over a lifetime of work and recognising a failure at something that was really important.

Amanda Lohrey's thought-provoking new novel Capture is about a psychiatrist called James Mather who takes on a project to interview people who've 'been captured by aliens', to see if he can identify a pattern that explains why they believe it.  He wants to develop a theory of the mind that makes sense of the phenomenon. So Mather sets up interviews, takes on a research assistant called Lucy and also consults experts such as a theologian who might shed light on reasons or motivations for these abnormal beliefs.  His 'experiencers' are not oddities whose ego makes them believe that they are The Chosen, nor are they conspiracy theorists who believe the government is hiding the truth.  They are not proselytisers who advertise their experience but rather people who keep it quiet because they recognise that others will judge them crazy.

So here's the thing: as we read Mather's interviews and his thoughts and discussions with Lucy and his experts, we readers start to think, how can Lohrey resolve this?  Starting with the premise held by Mather and Lucy and Helena, (the instigator of the research project), and we readers as well — that there aren't really any aliens abducting people for their own purposes — what can her psychiatrist character do? 

TO read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/04/27/c...

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I found the prose so grating but I actually really grew to love it. I wish I could give it a higher rating than 3 stars simply for my experience reading the prose. I felt like Lohrey was perfectly able to capture the essence of the character of James.

Just... I mean the story starts off as nothing and ends as nothing. I'm not an expert, but when you're doing a study, aren't you trying to test a theory as opposed to collecting data and hoping that will steer you in some direction? It seems like Mather wanted something without asking a question, and then decides to give up it's like... babe what did you give up? You never told us what you wanted.

Pleased though, because when I read the description to my partner he was like "Oh the older professor is definitely going to have an affair with the young attractive divorcee" like the books I read are soooooo predictable. Well guess what? They didn't. So I win.

[Sim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main character, Dr Jim Mather, is a psychiatric counseller and researcher at an unnamed university in an unnamed city in an unnamed country. Eventually I decided the country was probably Australia because the author is Australian, distances are measured in kilometres, the people speak English, the country has States and there are water dragons by a lake in one scene.

But it could almost be set anywhere in the western world and you generally feel disoriented in a globalised corporate or academic milieu where every second character seems to be a footloose professional, uncertain about their relationship(s), working stints overseas in places like the Gulf or the steppes of Central Asia, going to academic conferences in Europe or fleeing to a third world country to find themselves.

The novel is shot through with anxieties about the modern world including the bizarre activities of tech barons, climate issues, the food we eat and the meaning of being human in a world of biotechnology. It has a noiri-sh, dystopian feel.

Mather is persuaded by his mentor from post-graduate days to undertake a study of ‘experiencers’ - individuals who claim to have been abducted by or at least in contact with aliens. He is near the end of his career as a psychiatrist. He is a very rational, empirical man, even reductionist in his approach. He’s careful and methodical and knows how to interview the experiencers, many of whom he likes.

Are the ‘experiencers’ attention seekers, neurotics, flakes or people seeking to fill the hole left when modernity pushed out religion? Have they genuinely experienced an interaction with entities from beyond our planet? Or are they reacting in some way to the litany of social and environmental issues?

Is Jim equipped to work that out and is he in the right profession?

I think this is a clever, skilful book and the author is very accomplished. It was very hard to put down, but it isn’t exactly a feel-good story.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

An indulgent three stars, not because the book was badly written, but because I kind of missed the point of the novel.

James, a psychiatrist in his sixties, is taking on a different kind of study - into people who believe were abducted by aliens. He interviews different people with different backgrounds; we get to hear their stories and we hear James' assessment and ponderings.

He's got a new assistant, Lucy, a single mother of two.

I don't know what else to say about his book, except that I expected more, based on my appreciation of Lohrey's previous two novels.

[Dan P · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read. It starts very strongly and has wonderful characters and a strong sense of a certain intellectual culture. I don’t really know what it was trying to say, and in a sense, that didn’t detract from story once I gave up on trying to figure it out. I enjoyed the journey, even if the destination was middling.

[Pam Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the main character, this book left me feeling a bit unfinished. It is certainly weird but handled well by the author, a believable tale of the unbelievable. It raises big environmental issues yet they seem like the aliens a bit out there too.

Purchased from a new bookshop in the hope of supporting a local endeavour.

Not sure who to pass this onto next.

[Issy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“if reputation means never taking risks, then what is reputation worth?”

“but it’s a lonely universe, isn’t it? If we’re the only people walking around in it”

this was one of my favourite reads so far this year. I started and couldn’t stop

[Rosie Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I just hoped for more.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

“But what if you didn't dream?”

[Carmen Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it but found the ending a bit disappointing.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, thoughtful, and doesn't outstay its welcome.

[a ma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 I’m a moth to the flame given the subject matter but actually quite brilliant ? I Want To Believe

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

As he began to lose interest, so did I. A quiet, mutual parting of ways where you simply stop caring about the outcome.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lohrey never disappoints.

So well written and so thought provoking. Her tangents on matters other than the interviews are perhaps the most interesting of all.

[Victoria Strong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow… such a great blend of current news trends, mental health, counselling and ethics. Really enjoyed this interesting and thought provoking read.

[Melie Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

📖:’Interesting and weird all at once. I checked a few times that this was fiction and not some weird side project a retired psychiatrist was completing a memoir on. In that way it was very convincing and kooky and strange. In retrospect, a similar slow unfolding like ‘The Correspondent’, with a similar fascination that comes from watching a Louis Theroux doco.

🎧: Narration was solid

[Sue Thorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each year, hundreds of people claim to have been abducted by aliens. This is an interesting fictional look into a group of patients who have each made this claim.

James Mather is a psychiatrist in his sixties who decides to take on a proposal to study their stories in depth. Are they delusional? What has triggered them? Are they dissatisfied with their lives? Each of the patients come from different walks of life, however their experiences are generally very similar.

As a sceptic myself, I still found it was interesting reading. I think their may be something out there, just not sure it is grey skinned, large headed, short beings who live on saucer shaped ships...

I am a fan of Amanda Lohrey’s extraordinary writing, and I enjoyed this one as much for its individuality as for it’s beautiful prose.