A new edition of this stunning literary foray into place, grief, and what makes a home, from Miles Franklin Award-winning author Amanda Lohrey.

The conversion was Nick's idea.

Nick- so persuasive, ever the optimist, still boyishly handsome. Always on a quest to design the perfect environment, convinced it could heal a wounded soul.

The conversion was Nick's idea, but it's Zoe who's here now, in a valley of old coalmines and new vineyards, working out how to live in a deconsecrated church.

What to do with all that vertical space, those oppressive stained-glass windows? Can a church become a home or, even with all its vestiges removed, will it remain forever what it was intended to be?

For Zoe, alone and troubled by a ghost from the recent past, the little church seems empty of the possibilities Nick enthused about. She is stuck in purgatory-until a determined young teacher pushes her way into Zoe's life, convinced of her own peculiar mission for the building.

Melanie has something of Nick's unquenchable zeal about her. And it's clear to Zoe that she won't take no for an answer.

The Conversion is a startling novel about the homes we live in- how we shape them, and how they shape us. Like Amanda Lohrey's bestselling The Labyrinth, it is distinguished by its deep intelligence, eye for human drama and effortless readability.

PRAISE-

'Buy this one. Amanda Lohrey's brilliant.' Australian

'Written in Lohrey's familiar economical prose and exhibiting a fascination with the space we inhabit, The Conversion is an absorbing fiction of dealing with people and events from the past, and finding a way into the future.' Age

'We see Lohrey's interest in place, in buildings, in physical spaces, but also in therapy and psychiatry...I really enjoy what Amanda Lohrey has done by keeping us guessing in this novel.' Kate Evans, ABC RN Bookshelf

'Astonishing and beguiling.' Canberra Times


'Lohrey makes writing look effortless- every sentence is a pleasure to read. Her characters immediately come alive on the page...The Conversion is a beautifully written, quietly profound ovel that explores purgatories of the past and present as its characters move between and meditate on structural and personal conversion.' Saturday Paper


'Lohrey revisits the terrain of her Miles Franklin Award-winning The Labyrinth to create another meditative and rewarding read.' Good Weekend