Sophie Stern - What Is Left for Us. Family, Secrets and a Bondi Cliff

Join Ky Garvey as she chats with Sophie Stern, whose debut novel 'What Is Left for Us' traces two estranged sisters returning to their grandmother's crumbling Bondi clifftop house. The episode explores family secrets, alternating timelines, a vivid sense of place and the environmental threat of coastal erosion that frames the story. Sophie shares her path to becoming a writer — taking permission to write, being shortlisted for the 2024 Penguin Literary Prize, the editing and publishing process, balancing a day job and family, creative techniques (playlists, Scrivener, residencies) and practical advice for aspiring authors: make time for your work and write what you love. The episode also previews her upcoming launch and events. About Sophie: Sophie Stern is from Sydney, Australia, where she lives with her husband and son. Her short fiction has been published in magazines and literary zines including Yen Magazine and Ellipsis Zine, and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. The manuscript of her first novel, What Is Left For Us, was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize in 2024. Home - Sophie Stern About the book: A devastatingly beautiful debut about sisters, secrets, and the weight of the past. In What Is Left For Us, debut novelist Sophie Stern delivers a deeply emotional portrait of two sisters bound by family, betrayal and the haunting pull of home. Set between London’s corporate glass towers and the weather-beaten cliffs of Bondi, Stern’s novel explores the question that lies beneath every family story: how much of the past can ever be left behind? When high-powered London lawyer Rebecca Gill receives word that her late grandmother’s house has been left jointly to her and her estranged sister Hannah, she reluctantly returns to Australia — and the life she thought she’d escaped. For Hannah, a mother and wife living in Sydney’s affluent east, Rebecca’s return threatens to unravel the fragile order of her carefully controlled world. As the sisters begin to pack up their grandmother’s seaside home, long-buried memories of their mother’s death and an unforgivable betrayal begin to surface. Through the intertwined perspectives of both women — and the ghosts that linger between them — What Is Left For Us intricately captures the cracks in sisterhood, the weight of inheritance, and the slow erosion of truth. What Is Left For Us by Sophie Stern - Penguin Books Australia   Buy the book: What Is Left For Us by Sophie Stern - 9781761354441 (this is an affiliate link) Host: Ky Garvey Theme Song: Claire Houghton Logo: Tondo Creative - https://www.tondo.com.au/ Production: Aud Pitch - https://www.virtualcreatrix.com/ Totally Lit is an independent podcast. You can help support us to continue to chat with wonderful Australian creatives by leaving a review on Itunes or sharing our socials with your friends.  You can also make a contribution at: www.buymeacoffee.com/Totallylit For those of you who know me I am kind of a caffeine addict! So you can keep me fueled with caffeine and this will also help with equipment & podcasting platform fees etc.  I love to interact with our listeners so feel free to say hello either by email or social media: [email protected] https://www.facebook.com/totallylitpodcast