Kokomo

A stunning debut novel from the winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript

When Mina receives an urgent call from her best friend back in Melbourne, her world is turned upside down. Her reclusive mother, Elaine, has left the house for the first time in twelve years.

Mina drops everything to fly home, only to discover that Elaine will not talk about her sudden return to the world, nor why she's spent so much time hiding from it. Their reunion leaves Mina raking through pieces of their painful past in a bid to uncover the truth.

Both tender and fierce, heartbreaking and funny, Kokomo is a story about how secrets and love have the power to bring us together and tear us apart.

Staff Review by Ben Hunter

It’s been months since I first read an early copy of Kokomo and yet this tender and provoking story is still bouncing around in my brain. Victoria Hannan’s VPLA-winning debut is the must-read new novel of this winter. It’s one of my favourite books of the year.

Mina has left her life in Melbourne behind for London, where she goes unloved by the man she admires and unrecognised working in an elitist and indifferent creative industry. A phone call sends her racing home – her agoraphobic mother has been seen outside her house for the first time in twelve years. The sudden family reunion is not a pleasant one. Her mother evades her questions, forcing Mina to face the past she ran away from and piece together the truth behind everything.

I love Kokomo for all sorts of reasons that are hard to wrap up in a short review. This book subverts your expectations right from the very first page. It’s effortlessly hilarious just when you need it to be. Hannan, in fresh, unpretentious prose, showcases a frankness and tenderness when dealing with her characters, who are fully realised and feel instantly familiar. Kokomo also shifts effectively in time and place to give readers an intimate understanding not just of a daughter and her mother, but of two families and how they interrelate.

Most of all, I adore this book’s grip on the disappointments, the longings and the deep loves that permeate our lives. There’s just so much to connect with in Kokomo. Read it and you’ll see how.

About the Author

Victoria Hannan is a writer, photographer and creative director living in Melbourne. Her writing has appeared on McSweeney's Internet Tendency, 3:AM Magazine and in her monthly TinyLetter about swimming pools.

Kokomo, her first novel, was written at artist-in-residence programs in Brazil, Tasmania and Iceland. Kokomo was the 2019 winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.