When this drops in Aus on 30 April I think there will be some serious buzz…and, I imagine, some polarising reactions to it - can’t wait to see what others make of this!

I WANT EVERYTHING is Dominic Amerena’s debut novel. Our narrator is a writer in a rut while his girlfriend’s own writing success is beginning to soar. By chance he spots a famous enigmatic Australian writer, now elderly, at the local swimming pool, who’s been a recluse since her rise to fame and following a legal case accusing her of plagarism many years earlier. He finds himself dipping into the moral grey before diving into full blown deception and depravity to find out what happened to her, share her story and produce the work that will surely skyrocket his career.

We watch on as he weaves himself a web of lies that becomes more tangled the more he uncovers her story. And the TWIST! Oooft, I won’t say any more but I thought it was brilliantly done.

Not only was I treated to a deliciously dark thrashing of the Australian literary scene, this also threw up so many interesting questions and ethical conundrums as I tore through its pages - whose story is being told, who owns it and who gets to tell it? What steps would you take to tell it? Is it ever too late to turn back?

I suspect the main protagonist’s POV will grate on a lot of people - I found him so insufferable at the start that I was ready to give up. I really think it pays off to keep going though - this is whip smart with all of the layers that were so addictive to unpeel and sit (however uncomfortably) with. A really solid Aussie lit debut and can’t wait to see what else Amerena has in store for the future.