The Seal Woman

Beverley Farmer

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English

Giramondo Publishing
01 March 2025

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Australian Fiction

Portrait of a widow in mourning by one of Australia's most important women writers

The Seal Woman was first published to acclaim in 1992 but has been out of print for many years. The novel explores the mind of a middle-aged Danish woman mourning the recent death of her husband at sea, in a cottage lent to her by friends in the seaside village in Victoria where she had spent her honeymoon. Farmer's prose is marked by the suppleness of its language, and its extraordinary attention to detail. Dagmar's observations

of the sea and its creatures, the light, the mist, the wind, the life of plants

are so intense and evocative, it is as if she has dissolved into her surroundings. On the other hand, her passivity leaves her vulnerable to the deceit of others, particularly the man she depends on as her lover. Her retreat into wonder is undercut by a persistent questioning, as to how far it might lead her into a state of submission.

The Seal Woman was originally published two years after A Body of Water, an imaginative montage of journal, commonplace book, stories and poems, which it resembles in its own use of mixed sources, from myth and legend and history. In bringing these two books back into print, alongside Farmer's first work of fiction Alone, and her last books The Bone House and This Water, Giramondo is building on its commitment, not only to this remarkable author, but to the republication of contemporary classics by Australian women authors.

By: Beverley Farmer
Imprint: Giramondo Publishing
Country of Publication: Australia
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 148mm,
Weight: 200g
ISBN: 9781923106260
ISBN 10: 1923106260
Pages: 380
Publication Date: 01 March 2025
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Beverley Farmer (19412018) was the author of four collections of short stories, including Milk, which won the NSW Premier's Award for Fiction, and Home Time; the novels Alone, The Seal Woman and The House in the Light, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award; and the writer's notebook, A Body of Water. The Bone House, a collection of essays on the life of the body and the life of the mind, was published by Giramondo in 2005. This Water: Five Tales was longlisted for the 2018 Stella Prize. It was her last work of fiction.