An Afternoon with Abbey Lay and Heather McNab

An emotionally charged novel of female friendship, for readers of Elena Ferrante and Diana Reid.

Millie is in her final year at a Catholic girls’ school, subdued by the conformity of her life and her parents’ quiet pain. But when her schoolmate Olive moves in next door, it marks the beginning of an intoxicating friendship that changes everything. In all the ways Millie feels unsure and half-formed, Olive, an aspiring actor from a devoutly Catholic family, seems at ease with her place in the world.

On the precipice of freedom, the two young women seize nights out and a school retreat as opportunities to further their own increasingly uncertain ends. Olive urges Millie on in her sexual encounters, but Millie is only becoming more consumed by Olive. When they’re not staying up all night talking, they’re watching each other from their bedroom windows – their selves are becoming blurred, their lives intimately mirrored.

That makes it all the more excruciating when, seemingly out of nowhere, Olive cuts off all contact. For all her efforts, Millie cannot understand what’s changed between them. Has she missed something? Or was their friendship, for Olive, just another performance?

Our event space is wheelchair accessible via a stair lift. Please contact events@betterread.com.au with any additional access requirements and/or questions.

Abbey Lay grew up in Geelong and now lives in Melbourne. Lead Us Not is her first novel, which was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.

Heather McNab worked as a local news reporter and journalist, and now works for a not-for-profit organisation helping young people advocate for change through the media. Heather runs the monthly Chaotic Social Book Club and runs the bookstagram account @sisterhoodofthetravellingrants with two of her friends.