LITTLE WORLD by Josephine Rowe
Nobody writes such incandescently beautiful prose as Josephine Rowe. Her sentences are literary dopamine. Likewise, is the ethereal wonder of her imagination.
Little World kicks off in outback Australia in the ‘50s, where a saint appears at an old engineer’s home. And by saint, I mean the mummified body of a little girl. It sounds ghastly yet it is exquisite and sacred. Indeed, the opening of Little World is the best thing I’ve read this year. Rowe’s world building is second only to the brutal clarity of her glimpses into the life of the abused kid that became this hallowed thing in a box.
Had it stopped there, I’d have put it among the best short stories I’ve read. Alas, Little World takes a wild leap in time, tone and purpose, bringing us closer to the present and familiar. A bunch of friends take a road trip through the outback. Unsurprisingly, they find house and box. There are allusions to miracles. And then we skip overseas.
It is all perfectly fine but I desperately wanted more of the first section. I needed another hit. Still, read it for Rowe’s stunning sentences. To that end, she is a saint.
Little World by Josephine Rowe
Black Inc., 2025
132 pages
So I read this novella on the strength of your review and while I loved the whole book, I’m inclined to agree with you about wanting more of the first narrative - which was originally published as a short story(as you know from reading the author notes). Josephine writes in such a way that makes me want to give up on my own because she writes everything so much more beautifully than I ever could.
She’s such an exquisite writer, Bram! And she’s coming to our bookshop on Saturday! So excited.