Today is one of the days I live for as a writer. At the Edge of the Solid World has made its second appearance in the pages of the Australian Book Review, this time in an extended appraisal by Naama Grey-Smith. It’s a beautiful piece that genuinely appreciates the ambitions of the novel — and doesn’t shy away from, or diminish, the demands the book imposes on its readers:
There are, in a sense, many books in this single work, and their merging is gainful, like an alloy whose molten components are improved through complexity. … At the Edge of the Solid World is an unapologetically demanding work. It challenges readers in terms of both form and content: facing its graphic catalogue of violence, keeping account of its many moving parts, reckoning with its philosophical deadlocks, and, at the end of a reading session, escaping its obsessive hold. Most extraordinary is Davis Wood’s ability to blur the boundaries between narratives until, from their yielding, edgeless form, emerges a new shape.
I must say that I feel truly honoured and humbled that At the Edge of the Solid World found its way to a critic with such an eye for detail and sensitivity to craft. And I do mean truly; I wrote the book in fear that it would only ever end up in the hands of readers who didn’t know what to make of it, if indeed it ended up in the hands of any readers at all. To see it now in the hands of readers as receptive as I’d ever dare hope for — well, that’s just breathtaking.
Infinite Patience 