A Letter from the Editor: Arms & Legs, Chloe Lane
‘Her claustrophobic Florida is an uncannily apt backdrop for Georgie’s creeping worries’
Dear Readers,
September always makes me think of new beginnings, of going back to school and buying fresh books for the new school year. This September, I invite you to pick up a copy of Arms & Legs, the sumptuous second novel from New Zealand talent Chloe Lane.
Arms & Legs opens with an introduction to New Zealand-born Georgie, who has relocated to Florida with her husband and young son. Her marriage is stagnating, and she has started an ill-advised affair with the man who works at the local library. Meanwhile, the surrounding neighbourhood is crawling with life. Termites invade houses and toads take over the street, and the nearby forest is being controlled with prescribed burns. It is while venturing out on one of these burns that Georgie stumbles upon a sight that shakes her to the core: the dead body of one of her students in the woods.
She tries to move past her discovery, but it is impossible to unsee. As the force of this collides with the emotional fallout of her affair, Georgie finds that she must confront her past to understand her present, examining the immense power of witnessing and the scars it leaves behind.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Chloe Lane articulates the daily joys and challenges of being a married woman and a mother with refreshing honesty and sly humour, while her claustrophobic Florida is an uncannily apt backdrop for Georgie’s creeping worries. It is, above all, a novel about the many curveballs we are thrown in life, and how we choose to navigate them.
Arms & Legs is a book to sink your teeth into, unpicking Chloe’s mesmerising writing as the days get shorter and autumn sets in. You won’t regret it.
Best wishes,
Polly Mackintosh
Editor, Gallic Books
