Book Club - Emily Spurr's A Million Things

Final Draft - Great Conversations

Emily Spurr is a debut novelist. A Million Things began its life as a manuscript that was ultimately shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award. When I spoke with Emily for Final Draft she told me that that story went through a dramatic evolution to become the thoroughly intriguing novel that I’m here to tell you about today...

Rae is pretty self sufficient for a ten year old. She can get to school lunch packed. Clean the house, although the backyard is a mess. And she’s always got time for her dog Splinter. In fact until the money in her Mum’s back account runs out no one needs to know her Mum’s not around.

Lettie next door could be a problem though. Always on her porch, just sitting and watching. If she notices Rae’s on her own there could be trouble.

But Lettie’s got problems of her own.

A Million Things runs on its extraordinarily realised characters. Rae, Lettie and Splinter the dog are the sort of characters that you find yourself talking about like they’re real people. I don’t mind telling you that at one point Emily had me fully ugly crying over the story. I can’t you what it was, that would be spoilers, but suffice to say these are the sort of people who get under your skin and make you care.

And because you find yourself caring so much in A Million Things the book has this incredible power to pull you into its ideas.

At its heart A Million Things felt to me like an exploration of the ways we need each other. We’ve all learned a little about that in the last year but A Million Things pushes around the edges of the really uncomfortable ways we need each other, especially those times when we’d much rather push the whole world away.

Both Rae and Lettie need someone and both are terribly afraid of what it might mean were someone to find out how badly that need gripped them. Isolation has given them the false sense that if they can just keep controlling their little worlds then everything else will go along for them.

Let’s talk for a minute about the requirement to be palatable in order to be worthy of receiving love. That rule may not be on the books but it definitely exists, particularly for people in marginalised or vulnerable groups.

The reality for older women is that they are at significantly higher risk of poverty, homelessness, neglect and isolation. This is the group that Lettie falls in and as we see in the novel she has created a world that is safe for her in her isolation and is extremely reluctant to have it disturbed.

Because of who she is Lettie is also viewed as eccentric, weird and not desirable in her neighbourhood. She has to take significant risks to both let Rae in and give her support whilst also accepting support herself.

In creating these beautiful characters Emily Spurr has given life to people that we might otherwise not notice, even ignore, and she’s done it in a way that makes us fall in love with them and care.

This is also a book with a huge bombshell just waiting beneath its surface. Oh, how I wanted to tell you more about the big secret hiding in A Million Things, but I couldn’t because I love you all too much and I want you to discover this for yourself. But do me a favour and when you’ve read A MIllion Things get in touch and we can trade notes… trust me, this is a book you’re going to want to talk about!