Amanda Lohrey’s The Conversion (Text Publishing 2023) is another of her trademark meditative, slow burn, contemplative stories that focus on a woman and her particular place in the world. As with The Labyrinth, The Conversion is a beautiful metaphor about love, loss, longing, restoration and ‘how the homes we live in shape us’.
It is Nick’s idea to buy St Martin’s, the old church. Zoe had to be persuaded and even then, she wasn’t enthusiastic about it. A grand old building certainly, but what to do with the font and the alter? The endless memorial plaques? The gravestones? And how on earth to restore and make practical use of the enormous stained-glass windows?
In the end it is Zoe, alone, who must make these decisions, after circumstances (trust broken, a girl (there is always a girl), poor investments, poor choices, an accident (or perhaps not), a secret …) conspire to bring her and St Martin’s together. It may be deconsecrated but its ghosts remain.
Complicating the situation is her unlikely friendship with a local drama teacher, Melanie, and her ragtag group of students who wish to stage their next outlandish and melodramatic production in the church. Zoe will not have it. But her defences are down, and there is something about Melanie … those kids …
The Conversion is a beautiful, literary tale told in clear-eyed prose that touches on emotions and situations familiar to us all. It is a simple, easy to read story, a quiet exploration of place and setting and how where we live contributes to the people we become.
The black cockatoo is said to be the harbinger of rain, but in The Conversion the bird is also a symbol of hope and new beginnings.