Book Club - Lucy Treloar’s Days of Innocence and Wonder

Final Draft - Great Conversations

Lucy Treloar is the award winning author of Salt Creek and Wolfe Island. Today we’re discussing her new novel Days of Innocence and Wonder

Till is on the run from life, taking to the open road in a quest to keep moving, getting as far as possible from where she’s been. It is the project of a lifetime, ever since Till’s best friend was snatched off the street when they were young.

Driving far from Melbourne, inland and away from the familiar. Till doesn’t know what she’s looking for… Yet.

When Till arrives in Wirowie she’s immediately drawn to its quiet streets. Things start in a temporary way. Till squats in the abandoned and derelict train station. Then she makes it her home. Slowly she starts repairing; first the station's crumbling stonework and then her own ability to trust in others.

It takes time to adjust, and time for Wirowie to open up to Till. Small towns can be suspicious of people from the city who think they know better.

But just as good and kindness can be found most anywhere, so can darkness and Till must again face her fear and discover whether she is truly as alone as she thinks.

Till’s story is a journey of discovery and Till must find herself in a world she doesn't even feel comfortable saying her own name.

The reader is anchored immediately to the trauma that continues to define Till. From these sparse memories we understand that danger is banal and often so nondescript you won’t even recall its face. Nonetheless danger is everywhere and it can creep up on you when you least expect it.

This is Till’s reality and that of the women of Wirowie, plagued by their own mysterious attacker, snatching women off the streets and violently humiliating them.

Within the narrative Lucy Treloar weaves stories of escape, restoration and recourse. Till is offered opportunities and she must carve out her own chances to move forward. We see that through the relationships she builds that there is hope she can learn to reconnect but that the women she is connecting with have their own damaged lives they are trying to live.

Days of Innocence and Wonder feels like a thriller but reads with the subtlety and deft hand of a carefully drawn ensemble piece. As Till befriends the women of Wirowie she finds her own pain is part of a tapestry that belongs to them all.

The novel entwines Till’s life with the towns and suddenly all their histories are of a kind and they must come together to find a way through. In these depictions of loss and pain we see the impacts of trauma in all their embodied terror and witness a chaotic world where loss is perpetuated when there is no resolution.

The book explores the ways that violence exists as both an act and as a culture that builds up perpetrators and excuses their actions. Power is called into question and Days of Innocence and Wonder is so named for the illusion that such a time ever existed.

I was fascinated reading Days of Innocence and Wonder for its ability to intrigue and excite; forcing me to turn pages even as I paused to think about the implications of what I was reading.

If you’re looking for a summer read that asks some big questions, Days of Innocence and Wonder is definitely one to pack wherever you’re heading this holiday period.