If You’re Happy
is an insightful collection of stories about how we pursue happiness in a turbulent world by the winner of the 2020 QLA Glendower Award.
The stories in this impressive, thoughtful collection explore the human heart and its desire and capacity for joy.
A divorced woman discovers a growing sinkhole in her yard. A lonely man finds an abandoned toddler. A second wife in a fundamentalist community questions her religion. A young Australian veteran of the Afghanistan conflict is haunted by a memory from his last mission. Fiona Robertson’s stories traverse the globe to reveal people at moments of change or crisis, as they struggle to repair fractures in their lives and search for something close to happiness.
Reviews
Cate Kennedy
‘Robertson evokes disparate characters, their yearning hearts always on the cusp of something they can’t quite name. Mapping a terrain of loneliness, compromise, ageing and tension, these short sharp pieces set across wide-ranging locales create pockets of surprise and solace in unexpected places.’
Mirandi Riwoe
‘A tender and insightful collection. The beautiful stories in If You’re Happy will move and transport you.’
Nick Earls
‘Fiona Robertson deftly delivers the complexity of contemporary life in exactly the kind of clear-eyed uncomplicated prose that I most want to read.’
The AU Review
‘Robertson easily takes her place among these literary heavy hitters ... [If You're Happy] showcases the dexterity of its writer within a form that can contain as many genres and styles as any literary canon.’
Where to buy
PAPERBACK
E-BOOK
Short stories & other writing
Fiona’s short stories have appeared in various publications and anthologies including Kill Your Darlings, Island and the Newcastle Short Story Award Anthology.