Real Differences : UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing 2020 Winner

Real Differences : UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing 2020 Winner
ISBN: 9781925760286
Publication Date: 1 June 2019

Middle-class, clever and white, Nick is a child of privilege while his best friend Andie is the daughter of Indo-Chinese refugees. Despite their very different backgrounds, they share a conviction they can change the world for the better.

At the outset, Nick is pushing papers in a dead-end job while Andie is embarking on a secular crusade against world poverty. This generates conflict with her white husband Benjamin, who feels that Australians should come first. Meanwhile, Andie's cousin, the teenage Tony is burdened by his parents' traumatic past and impossible expectations. To their dismay, he finds solace in radical faith.

S.L. Lim acutely captures the dreams and disaffections of a millennial generation.

Real Differences is an emotionally resonant novel about idealism, ethical ambition, and love, filled with unforgettable characters. It ultimately asks us the most important question of all: What is our life for?

About the Author

S.L. Lim was born in Singapore, moved to Sydney at the age of one, and has spent a good part of her life toggling back and forth between the two places. At university she edited the undergraduate magazine 'Tharunka', igniting blood feuds and running exposes of dodgy student societies. After dropping out of law school she graduated with an economics degree and lived the life of a suit for a while before going freelance.

Lim's manuscript 'Revenge' to be published by Transit Lounge in 2020 was longlisted for the 2017 Epigram Fiction Prize. She lived for a period in the Slovak Republic, hates injustice, compulsory heterosexuality and the state, and has two pet birds almost as old as she is.