'This landmark contribution to Australian literary studies is the first collection of critical responses to the work of one of our most important novelists, Thea Astley. As well as essays from leading Australian and international critics, dating from 1967 to the present, it includes three essays by Astley herself, a major interview with her and the first Thea Astley lecture, given by Kate Grenville in 2005.' Professor Elizabeth Webby Sydney University