Jacqueline Maley

A song of abandonment, ghastly mothers, dysfunctional families, sisterhood and loss... Witty, savage and poignant

[Lonely Mouth] is brilliant on how repressing the past rather than dealing with it means it’s always there, ready to ruin the present too

An incredible read about families, body image and the importance of letting go

Exploring themes of addiction, love, loss and abandonment, Maley’s nuanced novel feels like a pressure cooker ready to explode

Richly drawn, wry and utterly compelling. I devoured it in a weekend

Lonely Mouth is humane and deeply, darkly humorous. Maley has a gift for character. Her cast of misfits stayed with me long after reading

Packed full of gripping family dysfunction, we devoured this. Just don't read it when you're hungry!

I'm so glad to have discovered Jacqueline Maley. She writes with wit, poise and precision, while her characters are devastatingly real. Lonely Mouth is a gorgeous, mesmerising novel

Complex, layered, and gut-wrenching, Lonely Mouth laces personal trauma and family dysfunction with humour and humanity. A singularly rich and moreish novel – I couldn't get enough of it

Read the first sentence of Jacqueline Maley’s debut novel, and you will be in it until the end. Electrifying, deeply unsettling and so, so satisfying. And, if you’ve ever tried to manage the sharp end of a career with the blunt demands of parenthood, fiercely recognisable

Complex, gripping and beautifully realised… Maley’s debut asks some timely and necessary questions about truth, love and our responsibility to others

Family dysfunction meets fine dining, in this novel about sisterhood, secrets and the things you can’t swallow down. 
 
‘Lonely mouth,’ he repeated. ‘It’s a Japanese expression. It means, like, you feel like you want to eat something, but you don’t know what it is. You’re looking for just the right thing. But maybe there is no right thing. Maybe you don’t need anything at all. But you can’t tell.’ 
 
Matilda knows about hunger. She works in one of Sydney’s buzziest restaurants, Bocca, while suppressing her cravings, including for her celebrity chef boss, Colson. Everything in her life is tightly controlled: she allows herself one weekend a month to feast and purge, the rest of the time, she stays perfect. 
 
Until her younger half-sister Lara crashes back into town, stirring up the family’s chaotic past and bringing long-buried secrets to the surface that threaten to disrupt Matilda’s carefully compartmentalised life. 
 
‘A song of abandonment, ghastly mothers, dysfunctional families, sisterhood and loss... Witty, savage and poignant’ Nigella Lawson

Lonely Mouth

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Jacqueline Maley

Praise for Lonely Mouth

A song of abandonment, ghastly mothers, dysfunctional families, sisterhood and loss... Witty, savage and poignant

**[Lonely Mouth] is brilliant** on how repressing the past rather than dealing with it means it’s always there, ready to ruin the present too

An incredible read about families, body image and the importance of letting go

A song of abandonment, ghastly mothers, dysfunctional families, sisterhood and loss... Witty, savage and poignant

**[Lonely Mouth] is brilliant** on how repressing the past rather than dealing with it means it’s always there, ready to ruin the present too

An incredible read about families, body image and the importance of letting go

A song of abandonment, ghastly mothers, dysfunctional families, sisterhood and loss... Witty, savage and poignant

**[Lonely Mouth] is brilliant** on how repressing the past rather than dealing with it means it’s always there, ready to ruin the present too

An incredible read about families, body image and the importance of letting go

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