Higher Education

'Funny, sharp and tender, McPherson brings great insight to the struggle to reconcile where we’ve come from with who we want to be.'—Diana Reid

There’s who she is, where she’s from, and who she could become.

Sam is struggling to find her place at university. There are so many parts of her that don’t seem to fit—her family doesn’t understand her new life, and her new friends don’t know the secrets that she carries with her: the sudden death of her father, her brother’s trouble with the law, and her sense that she feels things that make her different.

That changes when a lecturer introduces Sam to Julia, his charming wife and a corporate lawyer who agrees to mentor Sam through law school. Their closeness provides a way for Sam to understand who she is, and who she wants to become.

With time, this unspools into a dynamic of mutual preoccupation and boundary crossing, as they navigate their feelings for one another, the appropriateness of their relationship, and where it might be heading.

Higher Education is a story about identity, intellectualism and class, and the transformative power of education from an exceptional new voice in Australian literary fiction.