The Octopus and I

Erin Hortle

Chapters (19)

COVER PAGE

PRAISE

‘The Octopus and I is a bracing and exhilarating read. The storytelling is energetic yet beautifully judged, and the characters are wonderfully alive in their warmth and brittleness, their sorrow and their joy. The energy of the novel is exuberant; the insights are wise. I was engaged from the beginning and so deeply moved by the end. A terrific book.’

Christos Tsiolkas, author of Damascus

‘The world of The Octopus and I is like no other. It’s real—familiar Australian coastal landscape, and people I felt I knew intimately, so precisely are they depicted—but it’s also fantastical and daring. Erin Hortle’s under-sea narrators are as vivid as her human cast—and that is where the poignancy lies. Humans become creatures, and creatures are more humane than humans. Standing between the worlds of water and earth is Lucy, a character drawn with tender insight, unsentimental compassion and a fierce will toward life. Hortle’s writing is lyrical yet blunt; daring yet gentle; wild yet domestic. It’s said that humans are sixty percent water. This book tells us that we forget that fact, and our creatureliness, at our peril. It may be where redemption lies. The Octopus and I is strange. It’s singular. It’s exquisite. It’s haunting. It will grip you and hold you tight.’

Ailsa Piper, author of The Attachments

‘All at once exquisitely poetic, fiercely intelligent, deeply Australian and laugh-out-loud funny. The Octopus and I makes you think about what it means to be a woman … or an octopus.’

Danielle Wood, author of The Alphabet of Light and Dark and Star-Crossed (as Minnie Darke)

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT PAGE

First published in 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin

83 Alexander Street

Crows Nest NSW 2065

Australia

Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

Email: [email protected]

ISBN 978 1 76087 564 0

eISBN 978 1 76087 393 6

Cover design and illustration by Alissa Dinallo

Set by Midland Typesetters, Australia

DEDICATION

For Ido

CONTENTS

ONE

CROSSING ISTHMUS

THE OCTOPUS INCIDENT

TWO

A SEAL’S TAKE

THE MULTI-COLOURED KNITTED KNOCKERS

NO BIRD IS ONLY AN I

THREE

I AM SHE

SPUN AIR

THE OCTOPUS AND I

NOTES AND REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS