Martine Kropkowski in-conversation with Hayley Scrivenor

Three friends travel to Marcoy, a regional town for a weekend away from family life. One year ago, a tragic incident splintered the group, and the women have seen little of each other since.

Melissa has slept much of the past twelve months away, and she hopes this weekend will help her re-emerge from the depression she’s been living with. Bridie worries that she is not a good enough mother. She worries about most things, really, but she’s dealing with things just fine. At least that’s what she tells herself. In fact, she only agreed to this weekend away out of a sense of duty.

What Cassandra really needs is a break, so she’s come away to forget it all, to enjoy a cab-sav and an open fire and the company of her long lost friends.

This weekend is about reconnecting, about enjoying their friendship the way they used to, while not—at any cost—having to address the reason for the distance between them. But when they witness a young girl being coerced into a car by a father she fears, they are forced to reckon with the chasm of grief and trauma that’s kept them apart.

Everywhere We Look explores domestic abuse, the dynamics of female friendship, and the danger that can hide in plain sight.

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Martine Kropkowski has worked as a soldier, journalist and academic. Her short fiction and essays on literature and culture have appeared in Griffith Review, Overland and The Conversation. She is a sessional academic at The University of Queensland where she is completing a PhD. Everywhere We Look is Martine’s first novel.

Hayley Scrivenor is an internationally bestselling author and a former festival director. Her first novel, Dirt Town, won a number of national and international awards, including the ILP John Creasey ‘New Blood’ Dagger, a Lambda Literary award and an ABIA for General Fiction Book of the Year. Hayley holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong and lives on Dharawal country, on the east coast of Australia. Girl Falling is her second novel.