The Transformations

A portrait of a vanishing world, and a love story for the ages - from the award-winning author of Lucky's.

SUSAN'S REVIEW

Many readers were charmed by Sydney writer Andrew Pippos’ debut novel Lucky’s. The heart-warming story of a multi-generational migrant family that spans seventy years won several awards, and established Pippos as a writer to watch. His recently released second novel, The Transformations, while less expansive in scope, retains the tenderness, humour and astute understanding of conflicted individuals that characterised his debut. 

As its title suggests, The Transformations explores profound change, in this case at both a personal and wider social level. The novel is partly a love song to a dying print newspaper industry. Set in 2014, it’s a nostalgic view of a time when “[t]here was no dress code, no editorial character, no performance reviews.” Drawing on his own experience in the business, Pippos deftly reveals the nature of the changes, symbolised by the departure of two journalists at a fictitious Darlinghurst paper called The National: what the Human Resources Department, with its typical dehumanising jargon, calls “limited voluntary separations.” Just as the digital media is reducing the importance and status of print news, so too the life of one of its staff, George Desoulis, is about to undergo radical change. While this old-fashioned sub-editor believes in “an unlegislated obligation” to deliver ethically responsible news, his personal moral principles are unexpectedly unsettled by the arrival of two women in his routine and solitary life. 

The first impetus for change is George’s teenage daughter Elektra, with whom he has had little to do since his separation from her mother. The conundrums of being a newly active father are exacerbated when George becomes attracted to a reporter on The National: Cassandra is not only married with two children but also experimenting with polyandry. Pippos convincingly develops the tensions and compromises in the relationships between father and daughter, and between George and his lover, while raising bigger ethical questions about the conflict between our desire for fulfilment and the obligations we have to others. 

Other ‘bigger picture’ matters emerge from the details of those relationships: the lasting effects of child sex abuse; the struggle for a child to reconcile different parental values; the fractious realities of migrant experience. But The Transformations is not “an issues book” engaged in a social crusade; it’s an immersive, compassionate story about the complexities of human motivations and desires in specific social contexts. Pippos’ use of a third person omniscient narration offers a sympathetic view of characters’ inner lives, while his skilful use of dialogue is as much about what is not said as what is expressed.  Above all, it’s a novel with heart and humour; a wonderful antidote to bleakness and despair which avoids lapsing into sentimentality. Highly recommended.

PUBLISHER REVIEW

In the fading glow of Australia's print journalism era, The National is more than a newspaper: it's an institution, and the only place that George Desoulis has ever felt at home. A world-weary subeditor with a bookish sensibility and a painful past, George is one of nature's loners. But a late-night encounter with an unorthodox and self-assured reporter, Cassandra Gwan, begins to unravel both of their carefully managed worlds. As the decline of the newspaper enters a desperate stage, George and Cassandra struggle to balance their turbulent relationship with their responsibilities to family, and the compromises each has built their life upon.

With a deft wit and a sharp eye for emotional complexity, Pippos examines the stories we tell ourselves, and the ways people handle grief, guilt and generational change. The Transformations is a novel about endings - of dreams, relationships, institutions- and the chance of new beginnings.

PRAISE FOR THE TRANSFORMATIONS

'Andrew Pippos is one of Australia's best novelists. The Transformations shows his perfect emotional pitch, his gift for folding big things into small baskets of domestic life in prose that goes straight to the heart. Who knew he could write another novel as good as Lucky's? Here it is.' - MALCOLM KNOX

'In this intelligent, disarming and capacious novel, Andrew Pippos pulls the covers back on the public and private self. As we follow the gloriously messy lives of George, Cassandra and Elektra, we're reminded that the antidote to solitude lies in what we long for or desire. With its mysterious undertow, its delight in human fallibility, its backdrop of momentous social and technological change, The Transformations is a searching, fate-filled epic for our times.' - MIREILLE JUCHAU

'A beautifully written novel, understated, intimate and humane, reminiscent for me of John Williams' Stoner in its examination of quotidian lives and the quiet dignity of its protagonist.' - CHRIS WOMERSLEY

'A novel of great clarity, precision and feeling. Whenever I wasn't reading it I wished I was.' - ROBBIE ARNOTT

'A moving story of loss, labour and recovery.' - TEGAN BENNETT DAYLIGHT

'The Transformations is an exploration of vulnerable masculinity written with great tenderness.' - GEORGE HADDAD