Things Without a Name

by JOANNE FEDLER

At 34, Faith has given up on love. Her cleavage is disappointing, her best friend is clinically depressed and her younger sister is getting breast implants as an engagement present. She used to think about falling in love, but that was a long time ago. Having heard one too many love-gone-wrong stories from the other side of her desk, Faith is worn thin by her work as a legal counsellor in a women's crisis centre. Then one night, an odd twist of fate brings her to a suburban veterinary clinic where she wrings out years of unshed tears. It is a night that will slowly change the way she sees herself and begin the unearthing of long-buried family secrets so she can forgive herself for something she doesn't remember, but that has shaped her into the woman she is today. Faith will finally understand what she has always needed to that before you can save others, you have to save yourself.

Genres: Fiction

402 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Joanne Fedler is an internationally bestselling author and witing mentor. She studied law at Yale and now lives in Australia.

Reviews

[ALPHAreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Things Without a Name’ is the 2008 novel by Joanne Fedler.

This novel was gifted to me and I really didn’t know what to expect, but I ended up *inhaling* it in about two-days, and now I’m looking around for anything and everything else the author has written!

First of all: this is not an ‘easy’ novel. Protagonist Faith is a woman dramatically altered by two deaths that book-ended her childhood; that of her infant brother when she was three, and her chronically ill 17-year-old best friend. When we meet her, Faith is in her 30s and working as a legal counsellor at a women's rape and domestic abuse agency. And despite everything in her life pointing her to the contrary, Faith is still a woman who believes in love and the ability for one’s fortunes to change … which is exactly what happens when a strange sequence of events turns her world upside down.

Beyond seeing this as a ‘Women’s Fiction’ offering, I was really surprised at the heights and depths ‘Things Without a Name’ took me to. On the one hand it is a deeply moving and serious literary fiction novel, but on the other there is romance, a certain gossamer lightness, openness and hope that I think makes it a wonderful general-fiction offering.

For these reasons, I actually found Joanne Fedler to be reminiscent of Jodi Picoult for me – not necessarily in the voice and style of writing, but in the way they both take the personal and political to weave an incredible story. And the same way Picoult immerses herself in research for her books, I was impressed (but not in the least bit surprised) to learn of Fedler’s background as a volunteer legal counsellor at People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) before setting up and running a legal advocacy centre to end violence against women. She was also appointed by the then Minister for Justice to sit on a project committee of the Law Commission to design new domestic violence legislation.

That this is Fedler’s life absolutely sings through the story – sometimes in sombre tones, and then occasionally with a piercingly lovely tune. There is a tenderness and rawness to this story that I so appreciated;

I fantasized that by the time my little girl was a teenager, violence against women, like concentration camps and gas chambers, would be a shameful nightmare of history, a phase we’d look back on with lofty ‘it’s- hard-to-believe’s’ and ‘how-did-society-allow-it-to-happen’s?
At times it feels like we are circling the same hopeless strategies, never making it through this particular circle of hell.

And it makes the love within resonate that much louder and lovelier, because it’s hard-won for Faith and readers alike.

As if all of that wasn’t impressive enough – and the story so thoroughly captivating – I got another dose of tingles when I came to the book’s appendix and Fedler imprinted me with one more haunting message;

When writing a book, an author has the freedom to choose any names for her characters. I have elected to use the names of people who have lost their lives to domestic violence or in the course of sexual assault. I came across these people’s stories in the press from various countries (including Australia, South Africa, India, Jamaica, Canada and the USA). Below are a few lines that describe the trauma and loss of each life, which nevertheless can never convey the dimen- sions and horrors of their suffering. I have, with respect to all those who have died, borrowed their names to tell this story.

And then she listed them, told their story - and absolutely wrecked me.

I’m going to pass this book around to friends and family, and hope they get the same jolt out of it that I did. A somewhat unassuming story – as some of the best ones are – that shook me and reassembled me in the best possible way. Magnificent.

[Auds Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faith, the main character and narrator, works at an institution for battered women and children and flits between the past and the present in short, easy to read chapters. She finds inner peace and also love, amidst her personal struggles. The book is a pleasant, witty, well-constructed read.

[The Bookshop Umina]

Review from Tracey -

this was surprisingly great. I was not expecting it, just looking for

something different. By the end i actually felt a really close bond

with the lead character and wanted to put off finishing the book so

that i could still keep getting to know her. Set in a woman's advice

centre, there are some tough subjects covered including femicide -

when a woman is murdered by her partner. Faith is a lawyer, she

defends the women who come to her and tries to help them leave

relasionthips. Needless to say this has left her with a bitter taste

in her mouth and she does her best not to get involved with

men...ever. There is a certain element of a romance novel in here, but

as Joanne Fedler has spent most of her novel helping us get to know

Faith and not overly invovled in the mushy stuff...it is totally

enjoyable and endearing read.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Joanne Fedlers no-nonsense writing and I loved this book.Faith Roberts is a counseller at a centre for abused women.She is somewhat cynical and sometimes despairing , being constantly confronted with everything that is bad in the world. She has just about given up on meeting a good guy to fall in love with, when as is often the case,a strange sequence of events takes her life in a direction that she tries to resist. She wants to stick to what she knows until she realises that only once she herself has made peace with the demons of her past and with her dysfuncional family, can she really save others.Great book that I highly recommend.

[Lorraine]

Joanne is the queen of "Chic Lit"...sounds naughty, doesn't it. I have 2 extra copies. If anyone would like a coy, for free of course!!!!!inbox me...

[Pip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the subject matter being harrowing, this was an enjoyable read. The author obviously knew what it was like to be a legal advocate in a refuge agency for battered women. The protagonist was such a person. She was empathetic, generous of her time and resources and a sensitive soul. What she dealt with in a typical week was soul destroying. But the author treated the subject of domestic violence with sensitivity and compassion. The plot was nuanced, there were no stereotypes and the short chapters kept the plot zipping along. There were opportunities for the reader to think about the issues in depth while enjoying the writing. The setting was, I think, deliberately vague. It wasn't quite Sydney, nor was it Cape Town, it was every city.

[Lorinda Papazoglou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, gut wrenching book, although ‘fictional’ is based on many years of experience working with battered, abused and raped women. Joanne Fedler uses her personal experience in this field to bring the plight of so many to the fore. These are not issues we deal with or think of unless you are, or know of, one of those women. These are conversations that should be had, that we should be more aware of. We are so used to seeing violence and abuse on a daily basis - be it on the news, in movies or on social media, that we become immune to the realness if it. It happens all around us - the things without a name that is spoken of in hushed tones behind closed doors.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

1 of 2020
This book is narrated through Faith whose work exposes her to all the ugliness of femicide, sexual abuse, physical abuse and this taints her world/ life view. It explores her life and all her personal losses, from Josh to Nicolas, grandfather and her mother who never gets over loosing her son. Faith finally finds herself and love. I enjoyed reading about Nonna, Carol, Caleb, Shepard and Libby. An easy read despite the topics tackled.

[Alzet Weideman le Roux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disgusting, painful, immaculate!

The ache of finding a smudge of faith, hope, love amid all the hurt of the world.

Once again, South African writing just appeals to one without having to be announced.

TW: emetophobia, domestic violence, abuse in all forms, animal abuse & death, death, suicide, self-harm, chronic illness, nudity, sex

[Louise McMillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book well written

[Sonee Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart wrenching and captivating. The story weaves in and out of present and past, crafting the story in a memorable way. Loved it!

[Carissa Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!

[Sarah 'Richardson' · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Serious context. Light main character seeking love. Very happily surprised.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things Without A Name, the latest novel from Joanne Fedler, is an absorbing read. At the heart of the story is Faith, who is a vividly evoked, extremely troubled, quirky character who works as a legal counsellor in a women’s crisis centre. She is a passionate animal-loving vegetarian who cuts herself in bad moments. As readers we aren’t sure we can trust Faith, she breaks most of the rules of her profession, and she doesn’t always come clean about why she does what she does. Through Faith, Fedler examines how caregivers come to terms with a daily dose of trauma, shows how they suffer trauma themselves from working with the victims of domestic and other violence, and rape. We see through Faith the personal cost that having blurry boundaries brings to caregivers.

Fedler combines lightness and depth, humour and a wide range of serious issues. Things without a Name fuses the loves story genre with a tougher psychological drama and almost journalist foray into the world of crisis counselling for abused women. The love story holds the tension, keeps you hooked, and while Fedler doesn’t delve into what happens in the afterwards, the reader is left wondering what kind of afterwards it will be, as Faith’s troubled soul clearly needs much more than just a traditional “happy ending” to heal. Some of the darker aspects of friendship between women is under the spotlight here, issues such as envy, need, and mothering. Family secrets and tragedies power to shape and distort their survivors is another strong thread. Fedler shows us Faith navigating (not always successfully) a course between her instincts and the evidence. The truth she learns as she proceeds is murky and often unsatisfying.

Faith’s Nonna tells her that things without a name “don’t exist. And if they do, they are …lost.” Faith learns to name things that she was avoiding. She also doesn’t name some things, such as why she cuts herself, and the mystery and guilt about her mother and her infant brother’s death remains somewhat unresolved for this reader.

Fedler’s prose is richly textured, gathering meaning and depth as the story progresses. Faith’s love of spiders and other animals, her ardent vegetarianism, her missing butterfly pendant, and the uses of scissors amplify as the book unfolds. Fedler alludes to and quotes from Charlotte’s Web and The Training Manual for crisis counsellors are with equal dexterity.

The cast of characters in Things Without A Name reaches Dickensian proportions, and includes a sickly childhood friend, Josh; a kind vet called, Caleb; her unstable, highly-sexed friend at work, Carol; her mother who copes with the terrible tragedy of her infant son’s death by writing about it and running support groups for other grieving mothers; a mentally retarded pregnant young woman who lives in a home and her well-meaning parents, an immigrant Somalian woman who is murdered by her husband and her sister, Faith’s wise and loving Nonna; her quiet shadowy father; her tough, sharp boss, Beatrice and lawyer - Shaun Hamilton who does pro bono work for the counselling centre for possibly dubious reasons.

Things without a name is likely to have popular appeal, it reminded me of American writers Sue Miller and Jane Hamilton, who also bring complex and troubled women to life in their novels, and follow them into the dark forests where their actions lead.

(This review was published in the Cape Times in 2008)

[Jill Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review
By Jill Smith © December 2009
Title: Things Without a Name
Author: Joanne Fedler
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Faith Roberts is thirty-four, unmarried, with a suicidal friend and she works at SISTAA a women’s crisis centre. Love is a dream she has given up on because the daily reality of dealing with abused women has worn down her belief that it could happen.

Each chapter in this book is a slice of life, Faith Roberts is revealed with all her uncomfortable memories, her family and her suspicions unfold in gripping detail. Her Nonna taught her how to read and gave her often confusing but profound grandmothers advice. The daily work load of dealing with women in extreme situations is an emotional minefield she keeps in check; after all, she wrote the manual. Can she repress her own reactions to the terrible situations she is confronted with? Can she deal with reminders of loss and causing, however inadvertently, more suffering and loss of life? Will she ever find love?

In one week Faith has a client is murdered by her husband, her precious butterfly necklace goes missing, her friend threatens to kill herself and she runs over a cat and kills it. She finds herself crying uncontrollably in a vets surgery, leading to life changing events that begin with the death of a cat with no a name.

Some books are haunting and painful tales that leave an indelible mark on your soul. This is one such book. It is superbly written.
The appendix: What’s in a name? Is as sobering as the subject matter throughout the book, as reading a piece of fiction makes the reader feel ‘this is just made up’, but the list in the appendix is proof to the horrors in the real world.
Joanne has a great website, chats often on Facebook mainly about writing, (which is where I met her). She lives in Sydney with her husband and two children. South African born she studied law at Yale, got her degree and set out to make a difference by working as a volunteer legal counselor at People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA). She then set up a legal advocacy centre to end violence against women. Clearly the basis for this book is from her experiences during this time.
Joanne has written other notable books including Secret Mothers’ Business. I can’t wait to read more of her work.

[Paula Margulies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved my good friend Jo's novel Things Without a Name, and highly recommend it to those who like liberal, cause-related women's fiction (like the book's main character, Jo worked as an attorney for a legal advisory center to end violence against women). I would take the time to review Things Without a Name here, but I just finished Jo's latest book, a memoir called When Hungry, Eat, which is not yet available in the United States (it didn't come up on the Goodreads search).

The following comments are about When Hungry,Eat:

Jo is a flat-out amazing writer, and When Hungry, Eat is a wonderful book. Like Eat, Pray, Love, Jo's When Hungry, Eat tells a personal tale: the story of her journey through weight loss and the trauma of uprooting her family away from the violence in Cape Town, South Africa, to the more genteel atmosphere in Sidney, Australia. The book is an open and heart-wrenching mix of thoughts on family connections, the struggle to be thin, and the courage required to call a new country "home."

Jo is an astounding writer -- open and heartfelt, without being, in one of her favorite expressions, schmaltzy. She is most moving in her descriptions of South Africa. Here's a taste of her deft, insightful prose:

"South Africa is a mad hodge-podge of in-your-face opinions and insults, resourcefulness, ingenuity, humanity, and humor, in all eleven official languages. Africa's spirit rises from the dust and rains down from the sky, and is crinkled in the dents of old Coke tins others discard as rubbish. I knew, long before I left, as I did when I parted ways with Max, that I'd always miss the excitement, but staying would eventually bend my mind. You can't get away without adoring such a place, and the more you love it, the more it hurts."

For those of you in Australia, be sure to read When Hungry, Eat -- it is a fabulous book. For those who cannot find it here in the U.S., I also recommend Things Without a Name which, although it is a novel, will introduce you to the wonderful spirit and candor that makes Joanne Fedler such a special writer.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was beautifully written. Like ice-cold water on a hot day, it's so refreshing to find an author who can use words, who can tell a story... an author who actually writes... Dear god, it's one of a pinch of diamonds in a mound of cubic zirconias!

Fedler made me think. This is an intense book that confronts the darker side of everyday that we quickly conceal with foundation, blush and ignorance. "This is not pretty. It did not happen. This is someone else's problem." Fedler's character lays bare - without drama, merely states, weaving into a story with those silken threads of her web - what our everyday contains - abuse, rape and death. This is life as we have made it. And it sucks. It's ugly.

This book also made me angry. At all the crap that goes on. At the ignorance and misunderstandings. At the abuse of power. At the failure of humanity to be humane.

But sometimes it's good to think and be angry. And it's kinda awesome that a writer and a character can cause that in an individual.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the first I was drawn in by Fedler's writing style. Faith has a strong voice in this novel and she shares her life with you. I quickly came to care about her - perhaps indentifying with the fact that it is something she so desperately needs.
Tragic losses have shaped Faith to become a woman who takes on the pain of everyone, the responsibility for the loss of her brother, Joshua's early death, Carol's mental instability and the lives of the women who seek her help when they have been raped, battered and murdered by the ones who are supposed to love them. The personal cost of these accumulating tradegies are thoughtfully examined. Faith is silently suffering, fearful and unwilling to risk finding a space for herself and her own needs until she has no choice but to find the things she has lost. Her character is complex but sympathetic and vividly drawn.
Fedler draws on her own career experience with domestic violence, as she explains at the end of book, her characters honor women, men and children who have tragically lost their lives due to (mainly) family violence.
Things without a name is confronting, yet tender and unbearably sad with moments of joy. Honest and enriching, a wonderful novel.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joanne Fedler has done a fine job of this story about damage and its effects. Her writing and insight into the human condition, in all its forms, are strengths to this story.

Faith, a thirty-something legal councellor, works in a centre for raped and battered women, but has been in the game too long. She has grown cynical and suspicious about love, and men in particular. Nor, it seems, has she adequately dealt with the traumas and grief she has experienced in her own life.

The book opens with Faith and her co-worker having lost a client, a victim of domestic violence, who did not heed to counsellor advice. While Faith is saddened about this news, she is mostly angered. Though she becomes increasingly apathetic towards her clients, she is noted by her family as a rescuer and it is clear that she needs some of this for herself, if only she was open to the idea.
Fedler's handling of the subject matter is sensitive, and done with respect and thought for those who have been there.
"Things without a name" is a pleasure to read, and one to share with friends.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

At thirty-four, Faith Battaglia isn't so different from most women her age: she has a busy and demanding job and the usual dysfunctional family. Faith used to think about falling in love. But that was a long time ago. Then one night an odd twist of fate finds Faith wringing out years of unshed tears in a suburban veterinary clinic. It is a night that will slowly change the way she sees herself, and begin the unearthing of long-buried family secrets; a night that will allow Faith to finally understand what she has always needed to know: that before you can save others you have to save yourself.

I really enjoyed this book, although it was quite heavy and due to the subject matter, quite depressing. However I sailed through it and will definitely read some of her other stuff.

[Jenny Delandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the subject material is confronting.
The main character, Faith, works in a women's crisis centre. She tries to help but whatever she does it never seems to be enough

She spends a lot of time thinking about things unrelated to what is happening in front her.

But further into the book I realised that the random things were actually connected to Faith and something that happened to her as a small child.

She does find a way to connect with someone and finds love can conquer all!

Very thought provoking!!

[Michele Harrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. This book has the first character I have ever encountered who is as cynical as me. A great exploration of the things we tend to see best, when our eyes are closed. This book is a study of love in both its ugliest and most beautiful manifestations.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad read - better than most "chick lit" which is what i would probably classify as the genre.

I found it hard to put down but wasnt thrilled with the ending.

[Jacki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, don't think I could recommend but it is a memorable story for a whole lot of wrong reasons.

[Zahraa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read, slightly quirky style, predictable ending.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book. I just felt it was a 'nothing' book that was predictable and with no real storyline. Such a shame as I have enjoyed the authors other books.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really sad and not the best ending

[Melani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected but it was hard to put down. I enjoyed getting to know Faith.