The Choke

I never had words to ask anybody the questions, so I never had the answers.

Abandoned by her mother and only occasionally visited by her secretive father, Justine is raised by her pop, a man tormented by visions of the Burma Railway. Justine finds sanctuary in Pop's chooks and The Choke, where the banks of the Murray River are so narrow it seems they might touch - a place of staggering natural beauty. But the river can't protect Justine from danger. Her father is a criminal, and the world he exposes her to can be lethal.

Justine is overlooked and underestimated, a shy and often silent observer of her chaotic world. She learns that she has to make sense of it on her own. She has to find ways to survive so much neglect. She must hang on to friendship when it comes, she must hide when she has to, and ultimately she must fight back.

Praise for ‘The Choke’

‘Laguna has beautifully captured the bewilderment of childhood and the emergence of adulthood in her character of Justine. It is so unquestionably heartbreaking… This is an extraordinary read.’
–  Readings

‘…the stone Laguna lets fly ricochets inside you for days afterwards.’
–  The Age

‘In her sagacious way, Laguna manages to show both how an upbringing inescapably defines a person and the ways in which a person can rise phoenix-like from their past to create a life of their own reckoning.’
–  Louise Swinn, The Australian

‘…a book that is both gritty and utterly exquisite. The Choke is another extraordinary novel from a writer who is never afraid to go deep into the darkest recesses of human depravity and find something beautiful.’
– Compulsive Reader

Awards

Theatrical rights optioned by Melbourne Theatre Company 

Infinite Splendours

Lawrence Loman is a bright, caring, curious boy with a gift for painting. He lives at home with his mother and younger brother, and the future is laid out before him, full of promise. But when he is ten, an experience of betrayal takes it all away, and Lawrence is left to deal with the devastating aftermath.

As he grows into a man, how will he make sense of what he has suffered? He cannot rewrite history, but must he be condemned to repeat it?

Lawrence finds meaning in the best way he knows. By surrendering himself to art and nature, he creates beauty - beauty made all the more astonishing and soulful for the deprivation that gives rise to it.

Infinite Splendours is an extraordinary novel, incandescent with love and compassion, rich in colour and character. The power and virtuosity of Laguna's writing make it impossible for us to look away; by being seen, Lawrence is redeemed.

And we, as readers, have had our minds and hearts opened in ways we can't forget.

Winner of the 2021 Colin Roderick Literary Award and the H.T Priestley Medal

Longlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Award
Longlisted for the 2021 Indie Award
Longlisted for the 2021 ABIA Award

Praise for Infinite Splendours

“Beautifully devastating is the best way to describe Laguna’s latest novel.”
– Leanne Edmistone, The Courier Mail

“Sofie is fearless in her storytelling”
– Juliet Rieden, Australian Women’s Weekly

“…Infinite Splendours deserves to sit beside David Malouf’s Harland’s Half Acre or Michelle De Krester’s The Lost Dog in that slender collection of brilliant Australian novels about art”
– Georgie Williamson, The Australian

“Laguna’s psychological acuity is displayed in full effect”
– Nicole Abadee, The Australian Book Review

“Written with compassion and tenderness, and Laguna’s characteristic aptitude for inhabiting the inner spaces of a vulnerable preadolescent, Infinite Splendours is suffused with outward radiance, which makes its excursions into darkness all the more horrifying to read.”
– Thuy On, The Guardian

Sofie Laguna’s achievement in her novel Infinite Splendours makes my hair stand on end. She is so deft at balancing the darkest material with luminosity that it seems impossible to tell you the core subject matter of the book and still have you believe that it is ultimately uplifting. Written here, it would be confronting, possibly off-putting, but in Laguna’s hands the human condition she excavates is wrapped in her extraordinary compassion. Suffice to say there is a terrible betrayal against a child, then a painstaking exposition of how that betrayal ripples along the long arc of a life. Brilliant. 
– Lucy Clark, The Guardian

The Eye of the Sheep

Meet Jimmy Flick. He’s not like other kids – he’s both too fast and too slow. He sees too much, and too little. Jimmy’s mother Paula is the only one who can manage him. She teaches him how to count sheep so that he can fall asleep. She holds him tight enough to stop his cells spinning. It is only Paula who can keep Jimmy out of his father’s way. But when Jimmy’s world falls apart, he has to navigate the unfathomable world on his own, and make things right.

2015 Miles Franklin Award Winner

Praise for The Eye of the Sheep

‘The power of this finely crafted novel lies in its raw, high-energy, coruscating language which is the world of young Jimmy Flick, who sees everything…The Eye of the Sheep is an extraordinary novel about love and anger, and how sometimes there is little between them.’
– Miles Franklin Literary Award 2015, judges’ report

‘Sofie Laguna has perfected the voice of a child. The Eye of the Sheep is a dark tale told with perfection.’
–  Culture Street

‘truthful and beautiful.’
–  Newcastle Herald

‘Jimmy is a tour de force of a character, brilliantly maintained…Laguna’s great skill is in conveying contradictory human depths.’
– Adelaide Advertiser

‘By getting inside Jimmy’s mind and showing what an amazing place it is, this book goes a long way towards explaining what a library of textbooks could not.’
– Sydney Morning Herald