Megan Albany speaks with Dora Papas

Showing all posts tagged: Megan Albany

Megan Albany speaks with Dora Papas

21 February 2022

Megan Albany, whose debut novel The Very Last List of Vivian Walker, I wrote about the week before last, will be in conversation with Dora Papas, editor of Better Homes and Gardens, as part of the Books & Bubbles series of virtual events, this Wednesday, 23 February 2022, at 6:30PM (ADST).

The Very Last List of Vivian Walker, Megan Albany

12 February 2022

I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if I were told I only had a certain amount of time left to live. It’s not the sort of situation most of us are used to dealing with. Our time, energy, and thought-output goes into dealing with all those other everyday predicaments. Paying the mortgage, getting the kids into the best school. Meeting the latest deadline. No pun intended.

But this is what happens to Vivian, the titular character of The Very Last List of Vivian Walker (published by Hachette Australia, 9 February 2022), the debut novel of Kalkadoon woman Megan Albany, an Australian author based in the Northern Rivers of NSW.

With her mortality hanging by a thread, Vivian does what any self-possessed control freak whose life is regimented by lists would; she decides to face her demise by organising herself. She prepares to-do lists not only for herself, but husband Clint, and son Ethan. These lists, she hopes, will soften the blow of her terminal diagnosis, and prepare the family for a future without her.

Vivian’s final days are punctuated with a certain dark humour, and one hopes not too many of us will ever find ourselves taking a leaf from the book of Vivian Walker.