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Life in Ten Houses
What does a house – and a home – mean to a writer? Acclaimed author Sonya Hartnett is firmly Melburnian but has restlessly moved from suburb to suburb in her search for the 'Last House' – that special corner of the world in which to settle and find contentment. Viewing her life and work through the lens of real estate, she vividly recalls the places she has passed through on her way to finding home.
Expanding on her 2010 Redmond Barry lecture, this short memoir is a beautifully atmospheric exploration of the idea of home and what it means to be a writer in a City of Literature.
Expanding on her 2010 Redmond Barry lecture, this short memoir is a beautifully atmospheric exploration of the idea of home and what it means to be a writer in a City of Literature.
- GenresNonfictionWriting
28 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
About the author
Sonya Hartnett
41 books311 followersSonya Hartnett (also works under the pseudonym Cameron S. Redfern) is, or was, something of an Australian child prodigy author. She wrote her first novel at the age of thirteen, and had it published at fifteen. Her books have also been published in Europe and North America. Her novels have been published traditionally as young adult fiction, but her writing often crosses the divide and is also enjoyed by adults.
"I chose to narrate the story through a child because people like children, they WANT to like them," says Sonya Hartnett of THURSDAY'S CHILD, her brilliantly original coming-of-age story set during the Great Depression. "Harper [the young narrator] is the reason you get sucked into the characters. Even I, who like to distance myself from my characters, felt protective of her."
The acclaimed author of several award-winning young adult novels--the first written when she was just 13--Australian native Sonya Hartnett says she wrote THURSDAY'S CHILD in a mere three months. "It just pulled itself together," she says. "I'd wanted to set a story in the Depression for some time, in an isolated community that was strongly supportive. Once the dual ideas of the boy who tunneled and the young girl as narrator gelled, it almost wrote itself--I had the cast, I had the setting, I just said 'go.' " Accustomed to writing about edgy young adult characters, Sonya Hartnett says that identifying with a seven-year-old protagonist was a challenge at first. "I found her difficult to approach," she admits. "I'm not really used to children. But once I started, I found you could have fun with her: she could tell lies, she could deny the truth." Whereas most children know "only what adults want them to know," the author discovered she could bypass that limitation by "turning Harper into an eavesdropper and giving her older siblings to reveal realities."
In her second book with Candlewick Press, WHAT THE BIRDS SEE, Sonya Hartnett once again creates a portrait of childhood. This time the subject is Adrian, a nine-year-old boy living in the suburbs with his gran and Uncle. For Adrian, childhood is shaped by fear: his dread of quicksand, shopping centers, and self-combustion. Then one day, three neighborhood children vanish--an incident based on a real case in Australia in the 1960s--and Adrian comes to see just how tenuous his safety net is. In speaking about Adrian, the author provocatively reveals parallels between herself and her character. She says, "Adrian is me in many respects, and many of the things that happen to him happened to me."
Sonya Hartnett's consistently inspired writing has built her a legion of devotees. Of THURSDAY'S CHILD, Newbery Honor-winning author Carolyn Coman says, "Hartnett's beautifully rendered vision drew me in from the very start and carried me along, above and under ground, to the very end. This book amazed me." The achingly beautiful WHAT THE BIRDS SEE has just as quickly garnered critical acclaim. Notes PUBLISHERS WEEKLY in a starred review, "Hartnett again captures the ineffable fragility of childhood in this keenly observed tale. . . . Sophisticated readers will appreciate the work's acuity and poetic integrity." Sonya Hartnett's third young adult novel, STRIPES OF THE SIDESTEP WOLF was named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.
Sonya Hartnett lives near Melbourne, Australia. Her most recent novels are SURRENDER, a mesmerizing psychological thriller, and THE SILVER DONKEY, a gently told fable for middle-grade readers.
"I chose to narrate the story through a child because people like children, they WANT to like them," says Sonya Hartnett of THURSDAY'S CHILD, her brilliantly original coming-of-age story set during the Great Depression. "Harper [the young narrator] is the reason you get sucked into the characters. Even I, who like to distance myself from my characters, felt protective of her."
The acclaimed author of several award-winning young adult novels--the first written when she was just 13--Australian native Sonya Hartnett says she wrote THURSDAY'S CHILD in a mere three months. "It just pulled itself together," she says. "I'd wanted to set a story in the Depression for some time, in an isolated community that was strongly supportive. Once the dual ideas of the boy who tunneled and the young girl as narrator gelled, it almost wrote itself--I had the cast, I had the setting, I just said 'go.' " Accustomed to writing about edgy young adult characters, Sonya Hartnett says that identifying with a seven-year-old protagonist was a challenge at first. "I found her difficult to approach," she admits. "I'm not really used to children. But once I started, I found you could have fun with her: she could tell lies, she could deny the truth." Whereas most children know "only what adults want them to know," the author discovered she could bypass that limitation by "turning Harper into an eavesdropper and giving her older siblings to reveal realities."
In her second book with Candlewick Press, WHAT THE BIRDS SEE, Sonya Hartnett once again creates a portrait of childhood. This time the subject is Adrian, a nine-year-old boy living in the suburbs with his gran and Uncle. For Adrian, childhood is shaped by fear: his dread of quicksand, shopping centers, and self-combustion. Then one day, three neighborhood children vanish--an incident based on a real case in Australia in the 1960s--and Adrian comes to see just how tenuous his safety net is. In speaking about Adrian, the author provocatively reveals parallels between herself and her character. She says, "Adrian is me in many respects, and many of the things that happen to him happened to me."
Sonya Hartnett's consistently inspired writing has built her a legion of devotees. Of THURSDAY'S CHILD, Newbery Honor-winning author Carolyn Coman says, "Hartnett's beautifully rendered vision drew me in from the very start and carried me along, above and under ground, to the very end. This book amazed me." The achingly beautiful WHAT THE BIRDS SEE has just as quickly garnered critical acclaim. Notes PUBLISHERS WEEKLY in a starred review, "Hartnett again captures the ineffable fragility of childhood in this keenly observed tale. . . . Sophisticated readers will appreciate the work's acuity and poetic integrity." Sonya Hartnett's third young adult novel, STRIPES OF THE SIDESTEP WOLF was named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.
Sonya Hartnett lives near Melbourne, Australia. Her most recent novels are SURRENDER, a mesmerizing psychological thriller, and THE SILVER DONKEY, a gently told fable for middle-grade readers.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 12, 2015
I love these little Penguin Specials that are like the petits fours of reading. This one of Hartnett's is about houses she has lived in and the writing of books. Many of the suburbs she mentions here and has lived in are suburbs in Melbourne I have also lived in and so it did feel very familiar. I felt a real connection with the places and could see how they may have influenced her stories. A very quick and delightful read.
March 18, 2025
"No one who has grown up in Melbourne is indifferent to their depiction on the page: reading of such territory between the covers of a book we suddenly find ourselves young again, and sometimes we are at our most hopeful and happiest and sometimes we are small and afraid, but always we are somewhere that was once home."
"Every time I write of neat lawns and blue skies and post-apocalyptically stilled streets absent of life, but for blackbirds and the snicker of a closing front door, then my corner of the eastern suburbs rises from the oblivion of time."
"Every time I write of neat lawns and blue skies and post-apocalyptically stilled streets absent of life, but for blackbirds and the snicker of a closing front door, then my corner of the eastern suburbs rises from the oblivion of time."
March 17, 2025
A teeny tiny little read that had me in my feels (about my love of Melbourne and all the quirks and charms of the multitude of suburbs!) So sweet and interesting!!
February 3, 2018
The book is what the title says. Hartnett's reviews the houses she has lived in, the feel of the various suburbs and the book she wrote in them. A charming little book from a proud Melbournian.
July 5, 2014
A short little book about the suburbs and houses Sonya has lived in. I read this by the river and during my ten minute drive home I thought about the house I've lived in for 20 years. Sometimes I feel the urge to move. To 'change perspective'. To be like Sonya. But deep down I know that these urges aren't strong enough to outweigh the history I've got with this besser block house. Sonya needs to change her environment in order to create. I'm not a creator, sadly.
December 17, 2012
I am intrigued by the Penguin Specials - bite sized ebooks that can be read in a sitting. Penguin has a long tradition of exploring short form literary non-fiction and fiction, publishing it in cheap and accessible formats, and so it is little wonder that they have found a way of exploiting the potential of digital publishing. I was enchanted by The Element of Need by James Bradley, a short haunting meditation on the violence of the city of his young adult years and was terribly interested when I saw Hartnett had also written one - I bought both at the same time.
Hartnett could write a shopping list and it would resonate with mysterious and unsettling possibility. In some ways shopping list is an apt description of this title, though it is a list of what she has already shopped for and bought - a list of the houses she has purchased over a period of about 15 years and a reflection of her writing life within them.
In typical Hartnett style this is very pared back, incredibly potent in terms of sense of place, telling and yet so much left unsaid. As someone who arrived to late to the real estate boom I had to stifle jealousy in places. Yet what shone through for me was a kind of connectedness through place (a similar experience to reading Sophie Cunningham's Melbourne).
These specials remind me of a written form of a really good podcast. The kind of thing to have on the Kindle to read when you want something reflective, intelligent but achievably consumable (say when you have a sleeping baby in the backseat of the car and you want to give them another twenty minutes rest).
Hartnett could write a shopping list and it would resonate with mysterious and unsettling possibility. In some ways shopping list is an apt description of this title, though it is a list of what she has already shopped for and bought - a list of the houses she has purchased over a period of about 15 years and a reflection of her writing life within them.
In typical Hartnett style this is very pared back, incredibly potent in terms of sense of place, telling and yet so much left unsaid. As someone who arrived to late to the real estate boom I had to stifle jealousy in places. Yet what shone through for me was a kind of connectedness through place (a similar experience to reading Sophie Cunningham's Melbourne).
These specials remind me of a written form of a really good podcast. The kind of thing to have on the Kindle to read when you want something reflective, intelligent but achievably consumable (say when you have a sleeping baby in the backseat of the car and you want to give them another twenty minutes rest).
January 8, 2015
I liked this book for what it was (i.e. an Australian author writing 52 pages about the various Melbourne houses she has lived in). Offered some nice insights about the nature of home and identity and restlessness and such.
September 28, 2021
I’ve lived in over twenty houses and in each one my life has played out under different circumstances - as Sonya Hartnett notes in this little gem, there is no perfect house, it’s the life of the inhabitants that make the home a happy or sad place. The houses in this book are all Melbourne based, however having grown up and lived in suburban Sydney it’s very relatable. I really connected with this book, I’ve said goodbye to many houses, some I’d rather forget, and some that retain great memories.
June 13, 2024
This was an interesting read , it showcases how the places we live in shape us or how we shape them. It puts forward the questions of what a place or space means to you and is home where the heart is ? A well written memoir that explores the idea of what a home is.
September 15, 2021
A super beautiful capture of Melbourne.
January 27, 2023
Leuk boekje over de huizen waarin de auteur heeft gewoond in Melbourne. Meteen mee te zoeken op Google, en soms zelfs van binnen te kunnen zien. Herkenbaar, want ik heb ook in Melbourne gewoond.
January 4, 2013
See my full review here: http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
Life in Ten Houses is Hartnett’s ‘memoir of homes’ – her description of the ten houses she’s lived in and how each has had an energy and presence that has pervaded what she was writing at the time. It’s also the story of Hartnett’s search for her elusive ‘Last House’ – the place where she will remain, happy and content.
The concept of the Last House took root when a builder who was doing some work on the first house Hartnett bought said “This won’t be where you’ll live forever.” On reflection, Hartnett says -
“The prediction, when spoken, had been cruelly teasing to one who, only partially employed, felt permanently impoverished and thus trapped where I stood, as the poor often are… Nonetheless, the words would become a mantra of my existence, at least for the following decade.”
I’ll preface this review with two important points. Firstly, I’m a Hartnett devotee. I haven’t read everything she has ever written but at this point, I don’t need to because her novel, Of a Boy, is singularly the saddest story I’ve ever read.
“Of a Boy, that sad horror story into which I poured everything I could remember about overcast Sunday afternoons in 1970s Balwyn.”
Secondly, I read Life in Ten Houses whilst sitting in the yard of the only house that has remained a constant presence in all of my forty-odd years – my grandparent’s beach house. So I was perhaps feeling a little sentimental when I opened Hartnett’s memoir.
I particularly enjoyed Life in Ten Houses because it focuses on the suburbs around where I live and grew up. Her descriptions give these suburbs character – they’re rich, observant and to my mind, accurate (although residents of South Yarra may disagree).
“Kew is a handsome suburb of sweeping avenues and venerable mansions, a river, a tram, a hospital, it’s own cemetery, and parkland, which was witnessing, in 1992, the rise of the Lycra-clad cyclist whose speed and aggression is so disconnecting to other users of the environment.”
And of South Yarra -
“This was a suburb, a friend warned me, where you feel guilty if you wore tracksuit pants when you went out to buy the milk – and I have always drunk a lot of milk, and worn a lot of tracksuit pants.”
In her particular way, Hartnett weaves details that will stop you in your tracks with her simple retelling of the stories of her houses – a cat hit by a car, a fleeting reference to a love affair gone sour – she achieves this in language plain and simple and does it like no other author I’ve read.
“A decade later I still feel the shock of it, hear the boom of worlds colliding. My charming visitor was gruesomely killed in such a domestic way – a street, a car, a mistimed dash – and why shouldn’t he have been, for we were surrounded by the suburbs, sunk deep in their embrace; our entire lives had been pinned together by electricity poles, hemmed by nature strips.”
3/5 I struggled with rating this. On the one hand, I wanted more but on the other, my afternoon with Hartnett, in the shade of the trees, was perfect. If Hartnett had lived in Sydney would I have enjoyed it as much? No. It’s all about context. If you’re a Melburnian, read Life in Ten Houses.
My copy of Life in Ten Houses was supplied courtesy of Penguin Australia via NetGalley.
Life in Ten Houses is Hartnett’s ‘memoir of homes’ – her description of the ten houses she’s lived in and how each has had an energy and presence that has pervaded what she was writing at the time. It’s also the story of Hartnett’s search for her elusive ‘Last House’ – the place where she will remain, happy and content.
The concept of the Last House took root when a builder who was doing some work on the first house Hartnett bought said “This won’t be where you’ll live forever.” On reflection, Hartnett says -
“The prediction, when spoken, had been cruelly teasing to one who, only partially employed, felt permanently impoverished and thus trapped where I stood, as the poor often are… Nonetheless, the words would become a mantra of my existence, at least for the following decade.”
I’ll preface this review with two important points. Firstly, I’m a Hartnett devotee. I haven’t read everything she has ever written but at this point, I don’t need to because her novel, Of a Boy, is singularly the saddest story I’ve ever read.
“Of a Boy, that sad horror story into which I poured everything I could remember about overcast Sunday afternoons in 1970s Balwyn.”
Secondly, I read Life in Ten Houses whilst sitting in the yard of the only house that has remained a constant presence in all of my forty-odd years – my grandparent’s beach house. So I was perhaps feeling a little sentimental when I opened Hartnett’s memoir.
I particularly enjoyed Life in Ten Houses because it focuses on the suburbs around where I live and grew up. Her descriptions give these suburbs character – they’re rich, observant and to my mind, accurate (although residents of South Yarra may disagree).
“Kew is a handsome suburb of sweeping avenues and venerable mansions, a river, a tram, a hospital, it’s own cemetery, and parkland, which was witnessing, in 1992, the rise of the Lycra-clad cyclist whose speed and aggression is so disconnecting to other users of the environment.”
And of South Yarra -
“This was a suburb, a friend warned me, where you feel guilty if you wore tracksuit pants when you went out to buy the milk – and I have always drunk a lot of milk, and worn a lot of tracksuit pants.”
In her particular way, Hartnett weaves details that will stop you in your tracks with her simple retelling of the stories of her houses – a cat hit by a car, a fleeting reference to a love affair gone sour – she achieves this in language plain and simple and does it like no other author I’ve read.
“A decade later I still feel the shock of it, hear the boom of worlds colliding. My charming visitor was gruesomely killed in such a domestic way – a street, a car, a mistimed dash – and why shouldn’t he have been, for we were surrounded by the suburbs, sunk deep in their embrace; our entire lives had been pinned together by electricity poles, hemmed by nature strips.”
3/5 I struggled with rating this. On the one hand, I wanted more but on the other, my afternoon with Hartnett, in the shade of the trees, was perfect. If Hartnett had lived in Sydney would I have enjoyed it as much? No. It’s all about context. If you’re a Melburnian, read Life in Ten Houses.
My copy of Life in Ten Houses was supplied courtesy of Penguin Australia via NetGalley.
May 28, 2013
The houses we live in play such an important part of our lives, whether we live in the same house for a long time or change houses every few years. I've also moved house ten times in the past ten years and for this reason the concept behind this Penguin special caught my eye. In fact it's inspired me to write about all the houses I've lived in and the ways they've influenced my life.
I loved reading about the way the stories Sonya Hartnett has created were so intertwined with where she was living, and the different energies she felt in each of the houses. Life in Ten Houses is a meditation on life and change, and there is a real poignancy in her musings about the passing of time and the loss of youth and dreams. My only criticism is that it's too short! I wanted to know more about the houses and also her life, but it's perfect if you're looking for something enjoyable and well-written that you can read in one sitting.
I loved reading about the way the stories Sonya Hartnett has created were so intertwined with where she was living, and the different energies she felt in each of the houses. Life in Ten Houses is a meditation on life and change, and there is a real poignancy in her musings about the passing of time and the loss of youth and dreams. My only criticism is that it's too short! I wanted to know more about the houses and also her life, but it's perfect if you're looking for something enjoyable and well-written that you can read in one sitting.
July 5, 2013
A quick read... and enjoyable too. I liked reading af Hartnett's experiences in living in and around the inner suburbs of Melbourne, as she tried to find the perfect place to write. The reader (and aspiring writers) will relate to some of the commentary as well as empathise with the frustration of trying to seek solace in the act of writing.
May 27, 2013
This is a lovely little memoir, I read it at the hairdresser as I tried desperately to avoid the horrid gossip mags, I completely forgot where I was. Hartnett writes with light humour and a refreshing openness. I loved this.
May 28, 2013
A short, thoroughly enjoyable read. Sonya Hartnett recounts the houses and neighbourhoods where she's lived and written her many books. I read it in one sitting.
July 12, 2013
A huge fan of Sonya & this doesn't disappoint
August 23, 2013
Beautifully written memoir, perfectly describes Melbourne and searching for the ideal home.
March 7, 2014
I've long been a fan of Sonya Hartnett's work and this is a lovely little insight into her life and the houses that she's lived in while she's produced her work. It's short and perfectly crafted.
January 13, 2016
Interesting.
Read
September 6, 2017A short read, detailing Sonya's life in ten houses she both rented and owned in different suburbs of Melbourne.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews