City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

We spread, Iain Reid

eng

no index present

fiction

We spread

Iain Reid

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artefacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknown to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence where Penny finds herself after one too many 'incidents'. Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days blur together, Penny - with a growing sense of unrest and distrust - starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of ageing or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?