Winner of the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize 2024
Mary Anne is haunted by the death of her sister and worn down by depression. She's not a good wife and she's not a good mother.
Then, one morning, she wakes to find her life completely unfamiliar to her, and she leaves her family to become a country singer. Vivian vows to be nothing like her mother, Mary Anne. Wounded by her mother's lack of love and emancipated by her lack of attention, adolescent Vivian looks for knowledge in dark places: news reports about child murderers, fashion magazines, boys' bedrooms, and small acts of violence.
But when Vivian grows up and finds herself unhappily married and miserable in motherhood, she, like her mother before her, sees no choice but to leave. Bereft at her parents' separation, Evie struggles to cope with her mother's absence and wonders how to make Vivian stay. This dysfunctional family's dynamics play out across three generations: through the curious explorations of childhood, the tense anticipation of adolescence, and the fraughtness of parenthood.
Thanks for Having Me is a moving and relatable novel-in-stories that explores what we give to our families and what we take away from them - whether we like it or not.
'Emma has captured something rare and true with this book. A truly original novel about maternal ambivalence, the ferocity of maternal love, and what binds us to our sisters. I was so moved.' BRIDIE JABOUR, author of Trivial Grievances
'With this smart, funny, heartbreaking book, Emma Darragh bursts onto the scene as your new favourite Australian writer.' HAYLEY SCRIVENOR, author of Dirt Town
'A mesmerising narrative of family, grief, guilt and motherhood, told through several generations of women in stories that intertwine to reveal truth and sorrow. With startling clarity, Emma Darragh's sharp prose hones in on the minutiae of Australian life in the suburbs - sometimes eerie, other times tender, remarkably relatable. Thanks For Having Me is brilliant, funny, sad and disquieting - I loved it.' AMY LOVAT, author of Mistakes and Other Lovers
'Thanks for Having Me is a masterful debut about fear, love, self and other, and how sweet and sordid an ordinary life is. Darragh has sewn together the parts we don't always see, and the patchwork is wonky and beautiful.' LAURA MCPHEE-BROWNE, author of Cherry Beach
