‘It is in love that violent desires find the greatest satisfaction,’ wrote Stendhal in On Love (1842).    Though distanced by land, sea and centuries, Sophie Cunningham’s début novel, Geography, gives contemporary testimony to the same enduring claim. Set for the most part among the suburbs and landmarks of Melbourne and Sydney during the 1990s, Geography travels back and forth in time and place between Los Angeles and Sri Lanka, establishing an expansive mise en scène for this explosive meditation on the complexities of love, sex and self-destruction.

‘“Okay,” I say. “I will tell you a love story of sorts. I’ll tell you a story about the one who drove me crazy … ”’ So begins Cunningham’s protagonist, the 37-year-old Catherine Monaghan, whose tale of longing and dejection unfolds on a Sri Lankan beach. Having befriended Ruby, a fellow solitary traveller, the two begin to share the particular journeys of their lives that have led them to this place.